Second day of IBAAS-CHALIECO sees a number of reports on bauxite mining & aluminium

On the second day of IBAAS-CHALIECO International Symposium on Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium in China; Russell Williams of Navasota Resources Inc. informed that they are in possession of about 700 Million to 1.5 Billion tons of high grade bauxite resources in Guinea and also discussed the ready infrastructure plan. Mr. Vyas of GMDC has taken the International audience to Gujarat showing high grade bauxite potential of the state and ready feasibility to set up Greenfield alumina refinery. Dr. Yves Occello of Amber Development, France has shown the possibility of upgrading the low grade bauxite of China by adopting partial calcination and leaching of ore (removal of silica). The white calcium silicate residue, in place of usual red mud, is environment friendly, have potential use in industries and also reduces the cost of alumina production by RMB150 per ton. Dr. Jayasankar of IIMT, Bhubaneswar has shown the way of red mud utilisation especially for pig iron and Portland slag cement production by thermal plasma technique. Ms. Summer Qi of Australia Minerals and Mining Group Ltd. informed the audience about the readiness of their company to produce high purity alumina from white clay of Western Australia. Paper presenters of Outotec, Germany; GEA Process Engineers, CHALIECO and Cytec Industries USA have shown new developments in their fields covering energy reduction, methods of improving plant operations / availability etc. The heat recovery presentation of Chinese calciner by Mr. Jin Gang has evoked good interest among delegates.

Mr. Yi Xiaobing from Chalieco presented the research in MPPIC control concept in pot operation which could lead to better operation of reduction cell. Mr. H. Tremblay from Hatch introduced production system and MES in optimizing operation in primary aluminum smelter. Mr. Zhang Henghai from Shanghai Hengyang Instruments Technology Co. Ltd. introduced a new type of refractory design in anode bake furnace which could reduce energy consumption in baking. Dr. Chen Xiping presented the progress in recycling solid waste from pot room. Couple of presentations in the field of downstream were also delivered.

The presentations during the day leaves very strong impression that research in improving operation and management of production as well as improvement in environment protection become more and more important in the aluminium industry. The open discussions on technical subjects made second day of IBAAS-CHALIECO conference quite fruitful for the delegates.