International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) has completed a project examining aluminium and bauxite supply chains to improve transparency and traceability in materials supporting the renewable energy transition. The project brought together wind energy company Siemens Gamesa, Dutch cable manufacturer TKF, Digital Product Passport (DPP) technology provider Minespider, and project partner Responsible Trade. The initiative mapped selected upstream aluminium and bauxite supply chains and tested secure DPPs to organise and present traceability and sustainability information across multiple supplier tiers. Explore the production, demand and consumption forecasts of bauxite and alumina in our report: " Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price...
Mount Ridley Mines has reported 94.9 per cent gallium recovery from a third-party bauxite sample using its patent-pending Selectro process, alongside recoveries of 92 per cent aluminium and 97 per cent iron in a single low-temperature leach. The test also produced a silica-rich residue instead of conventional red mud, highlighting the technology’s potential to recover multiple metals from bauxite through one processing route. The sample was provided by Australian Silica Quartz Group from its Darling Range bauxite project in Western Australia. It comprised material collected from 16 vacuum drill samples across four holes at the Athena and Ceres prospects. Containing 80 parts per million of gallium, the sample yielded an extraction rate of 94.9 per cent into solution. Mount Ridley said this...
Grow with
AL Circle
A local media update from Malaysia today says that the moratorium on bauxite mining activities will be lifted in April 2019. This was announced by the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry of Malaysia. Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar added that the order will require clearance of the existing 435,000 tonnes of bauxite stockpiled at the Kuantan and Kemaman ports by March 31. He had inspected the bauxite mining activities at the mentioned sites in Malaysia on Monday (Feb 18) morning and made the announcement. "We are asking all involved to cooperate with the ministry and the state to get it done in the coming month," he said. Dr Xavier said the Cabinet had agreed to a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which would cover all aspects of bauxite mining sector, from mining to exports....
According to a recent report, unlicensed mining of bauxite is still found continuing on the islands of Angkut, Dendang and Bukit Bati in Bintan, Riau Islands, despite a government call to end the activities. "I do not know why they still continue to mine the bauxite,” said the head of Bintan and Tanjungpinang’s forest management and production department on Sunday. He also said bauxite mining sites in Bukit Batu are located close to the Bintan district administration office, while workers of mining firm CV Gemilang used the main road to transport bauxite to the port and sell it to PT Gunung Bintan Abadi. Per the regulation, no bauxite mining trucks are allowed to use public road to transport bauxite. Earlier, Environment and Forect Ministry forest preservation director Sustyo Iriyono had...
According to a recent report, a show cause notice has been served to the Utkal Alumina’s Baphlimali Bauxite Mine for cancellation of mining lease for allegedly failing to comply with environmental norms. As per the report, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has served a show cause notice on the bauxite mining asking for a reply from its director with 15 days as to why the consent granted for mining should not be revoked. Sources said Utkal Alumina International Limited is operating the mine at Paikkupakhal in Rayagada district over a leasehold area of 1,388.74 hectare. SPCB officials detected discrepancies in environmental compliances when they had gone for inspecting the mine on January 16 and January 17. The notice was served to the mine on February 12, stating that fugitive dust...
TSX-V-listed Altus Strategies has reportedly reached a Joint Venture Termination agreement and a Sale & Purchase agreement with ASX-listed Canyon Resources, which dictate the dissolution of their existing partnership dated back to December 23, 2013. Per the agreements, Altus will transfer all of its share capital in subsidiary Aucam Resources Ltd. to Canyon. Aucam is the holder of Altus' Birsok and Mandoum licences in central Cameroon. The licences cover the Minim Martap bauxite deposit. In return, Altus will receive 30 million Canyon shares, valued at about GBP3.4 million. Altus will also receive a royalty of USD1.50 per tonne on bauxite ore mined and sold from Minim Martap project. Earlier, Canyon Resources had announced a JORC compliant resource estimate for the Minim Martap project of...
China Customs data found that bauxite imports into China jumped in 2018 to total at 85.61 million tonnes against 64.63 million tonnes in 2017. The Chinese government’s environmental restrictions and crackdowns on the black market tightened domestic supplies and thus prompted increasing imports of the ore. Expansion of alumina production through the year also been a reason for China’s growing bauxite imports in 2018. In the first 10 months of last year, China’s bauxite imports accounted for about 45 per cent of the country’s overall bauxite supplies, as domestic production rose by only 1.8 per cent year-on-year during that time. China’s alumina production, on the other hand, recorded about 70.48 million tonnes in 2018, up 3.01 per cent from 68.35 million tonnes in 2017. Production lines at...
Rusal produced 3,719 thousand tonnes of bauxite in the fourth quarter of 2018, a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 3.4 per cent.The company had produced 3,848 thousand tonnes of bauxite in the third quarter of 2018. For the full year of 2018, the company achieved total production of 13,847 thousand tonnes of bauxite, an increase of 18.9 per cent year-on-year from 11,645 thousand tonnes in 2017. “In June 2018 the Company announced the completion of the first stage of development of the Dian-Dian bauxite deposit and the reopening of the operations of the Friguia bauxite and alumina complex. As a result in 12M18 bauxite output increased by 18.9%, up to 13,847 thousand tonnes, Rusal said. Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. produced 1,394 thousand tonnes of bauxite in 2018, up 33.4 per cent year on...
Depending on the incessant increase in bauxite demand for primary aluminium production, one country that has come a long way as bauxite exporter in the last three years is none other than Montenegro. After a plunge in total export last year, the Balkan country is expected to turn around with a greater year-on-year export volume in 2019. According to our third-party data, Montenegro in 2019 is estimated to export around 1.39 million tonnes, in contrast to 1.08 million tonnes in 2018. This indicates that Montenegro’s bauxite export in 2019 is likely to rise by 29 per cent year-on-year. But in the year last, exports by Montenegro had fallen from 1.81 million tonnes in 2017, down 40 per cent. In 2016, on the other hand, Montenegro had exported 487,910 tonnes, which means 2017 had seen a...
According to a report by Antara on February 5, the Environment and Forest Ministry has stationed a team at bauxite mining sites in Bintan District for the investigation of alleged environment damage in the region. The Environment and Forest Minister Siti Nurbaya said the team arrived at the spot on Tuesday, February 5, and would soon take legal measures. Riau Islands Governor Nurdin Basirun, however, refused to comment on this, claiming that he had not received any information on environment damage in Bintan District as a result of bauxite mining in the region. He particularly remarked on Monday, "I do not want to comment on this before I receive information from the related office. I will order the office to monitor the bauxite mining." Antara reported that bauxite mining areas such as...
Water and wastewater treatment company De.mem Limited announced that the company has secured A$780,000 ($564,868) operations and maintenance contract for Rio Tinto’s Amrun bauxite mine in Queensland, Australia. De.mem will manage potable water and sewage treatment plants at the mine, for 12 months beginning January 2019. The company said the additional revenue could be secured from the delivery of spares and other equipment. De.mem CEO Andreas Kroell said: “This new purchase order is another great success for De.mem as it underlines our well established customer base in the mining and resources sector, and our strong, recurring Operations & Maintenance (“O&M”) business. “The O&M business is of high importance to De.mem as the recurring revenues deliver predictable and dependable revenue...
Environmental organisations this week reportedly renewed calls on government to stop all mining and prospecting activities in the Atewa Forest Reserve due to grievous repercussions on the country. The environmental groups said the Atewa Forest provided a variety of ecosystem service and other benefits that superseded the financial gains derived from mining bauxite in the forest. The environmental groups were led by ARocha Ghana, Wildlife Society of Ghana, Rainforest Trust, Friends of the Earth-Ghana, International Committee of the Netherlands, and Advocates for Biodiversity Conservation. They asked the government and the China Development Bank to find alternative ways that would enable the Atewa Forest to generate additional financial resources for the state and support the development of...
Australian Bauxite Limited has begun mining and screening operations at its Bald Hill mine near Campbell Town, northern Tasmania, as it prepares for the next cargo of seaborne cement-grade bauxite. The company has worked with the customer for the 4 months to achieve the optimum product specifications. Australian Bauxite has awarded the contract for mining, processing and blending to Hazell Bros contractors. It has also commenced contract negotiations for transporting the product to the Bell Bay port. “ABx has long-standing relationships with experienced contractors that are well known for meeting the strict tonnage-specification targets and complying with community and landholder requirements.” “ABx has contracted with QUBE Logistics at Bell Bay for the stevedoring services and...
After almost two months, the spot price of bauxite recorded a change on January 28, according to Shanghai Metals Market. The bauxite price dipped by RMB 20 per tonne and stood at RMB 550 per tonne. Prior to this, the aluminium ore price was at RMB 570 per tonne from December 3, 2018, to January 27, 2019. Although the bauxite price remained restraint over the last two months at RMB 570 per tonne and even registered drop from RMB 590 per tonne towards the end of October and RMB 580 per tonne at the end November, yet it followed an overall upward trend compared to the first half of 2018. In the first half of 2018 (January to July), the bauxite price was between the range of RMB 380 per tonne and RMB 505 per tonne. However, the average prices on January 28 were expected to range between RMB...
Canyon Resources has reportedly appointed Steven Zaninovich as a non-executive director to strengthen its board with project development. Zaninovich comes with over 25 years of experience in the mining industry working in the development of multiple mining operations across various commodities and jurisdictions in West Africa. After serving as COO at Gryphon Minerals, he worked with the delivery and commissioning of lithium producer Tawana Resources’ Bald Hill project. Canyon Resources chairman David Netherway said: “I am extremely pleased to welcome Steven to our board. His extensive experience in successfully delivering projects together with his corporate roles makes him an ideal board member to add and compliment the expertise of the current board.” He further said: “With the current...
Metro Mining has published its 4th Quarter Report. Bauxite production for the quarter was 743k wet metric tonnes (WMT). About 816k WMT bauxite was shipped in the quarter. The shipment volume remained same as the third quarter while production dropped slightly due to bad weather. Annualised production run-rate was about 2.5M WMT per annum for the second consecutive quarter. Strong performance helped the Bauxite Hills achieve its 2018 production guidance, with in excess of 2M WMT shipped to customers in China. Based on strong operating performance and strong customer demand, Metro upgraded production guidance for 2019 17% from 3.0M to 3.5M WMT. Mine EBITDA for the quarter increased to A$8.6M with more production and operational improvements. Transhipping activities continued to perform very...
Australian Bauxite Limited announced that they would ship about 30,000 tonnes of Tasmanian bauxite from the Bell Bay port around March 1. The cement grade bauxite will be from Australian Bauxite’s Bald Hill mine, near Campbell Town. The negotiations with the customer took three months as Australian Bauxite offered new products to the customers and they worked with the consumers to achieve the “optimum product specifications”. The process took longer time than usual. “We provided samples from a suite of possible products, all prepared at our laboratory, supervised by operations manager Nathan Towns …,” the company statement said. The company had started contract negotiations for mining, processing and blending at the mine site. The company was also expected to resume the sales of...
Emirates Global Aluminium has achieved a milestone at its under-construction Guinea bauxite mining project as the first bauxite train travelled from its subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation’s mine to the coast. EGA said the 80-wagon train carried some 6,800 tonnes of bauxite. The bauxite will be used to begin building a base-layer of bauxite at GAC’s new stockyard. First bauxite exports from the project are expected in the second half of this year. Source: Emirates Global Aluminium Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “This milestone is the result of many thousands of hours of planning and teamwork in Guinea involving GAC, train operator Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, the owner of the existing rail infrastructure ANAIM, and other rail partners. I...
Global miner Rio Tinto announced fourth quarter and full year 2018 production results. Rio’s bauxite production in 2018 was one per cent lower than 2017, with strong production at Gove and the Andoom mining area in Weipa was offset by lower production at two non-managed operations. The CBG mine in Guinea was impacted by planned tie-in works as part of the commissioning of the expansion project, and MRN in Brazil was affected by the Alunorte refinery outage. The company produced 50.4 million tonnes of in 2018. During the fourth quarter of 2018 , the company’s bauxite production dropped 14 per cent YoY to 11.7 million tonnes due to the planned transition of operations from East Weipa to Amrun in Queensland, and the tie-in works at CBG. The third party shipments of 32.8 million tonnes were...
Alcoa said it expected the bauxite market to remain in surplus with global stockpile growth projected to continue in 2019, ranging between 7 million and 11 million tonnes, driven by China, which strategically holds bauxite due to uncertain sourcing within and outside of the country. The company estimated that its total bauxite shipments to range between 47.0 and 48.0 million dry tonnes. The company said it expected the alumina market to move to a surplus in 2019, ranging between 0.2 million and 1 million tonnes, which assumes ongoing, third-party supply disruptions in the Atlantic region. The projected alumina surplus is driven by China, where refining expansions are expected to outpace demand growth from smelting. Total alumina shipments are expected to be between 13.6 and 13.7 million...
