Impact Minerals plans staged 4,000-tpa HPA production in US
A NewPro study supports a staged 2,000-to-4,000-tonne-per-year high-purity alumina plant on the US Gulf Coast, with a post-tax NPV of about USD373 million and a 42.3 per cent IRR. Impact Minerals is advancing plans for a modular high-purity alumina (HPA) plant in the US after an independent scoping...
Ireland withholds Aughinish Alumina meeting notes amid Russia export review
Ireland’s Department of Enterprise has withheld the release records of discussions between its secretary general and Aughinish Alumina management, citing “highly confidential information” shared by the company. The decision comes as scrutiny intensifies over the Limerick refinery’s alumina exports...
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High smelting cost may have rebound effect on Indonesia's mineral export ban
Indonesia’s ban on key mineral ores export (except the ones processed in Indonesia) risks backfiring as less commodity means it will not be cost-effective for aluminum producers to invest in expensive refineries and smelters. The ban came into effect on the 12th of January, was unveiled in 2009 as...
ICMS tax to impact bauxite and alumina business of Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro ASA's alumina refinery Alunorte in Brazil will be subject to ICMS taxation on fuel oil starting February 1, following a decision by the Brazilian state of Pará to change the collection point of the ICMS tax on fuel-oil purchases. Assuming that the decision is upheld, the estimated...
Cita Mineral awaits go-ahead to resume bauxite shipments
Bauxite miner Cita Mineral Investindo ceased its bauxite ore export activities on Jan. 12, following the mineral ore export ban implemented by the government. Bauxite and nickel miners have been hit the hardest in the wake of Indonesia’s policy initially aimed to ban mineral ore exports. The...
Vedanta targets 80-90% capacity utilisation on better bauxite supply
Vedanta is aiming at achieving of 80-90 per cent capacity utilisation this month, boosted by availability of bauxite from several sources, even as its plans for captive mining in Odisha remains thwarted by the ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) refusal to provide stage II forest clearance to...
Indonesia’s new mining law in effect, 3 new smelters about to start their production process
Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board BKPM announced three processing and mineral concentrate refineries (smelters) are in the construction phase and they expect them to be ready for production in Indonesia in 2014. Two of the smelters will process as well as purify iron ore, bauxite will be...
AusGroup unit signs a 2 year contract with BHP Billiton's refinery in Australia
AusGroup's subsidiary MAS Australasia, which provides scaffolding and associated services for construction and maintenance projects in the mining, oil & gas, infrastructure and commercial sectors, has been awarded a contract to service mining giant BHP Billiton. It clinched a two year deal, with an...
Lack of Bauxite, AnRak Aluminium Ltd's aluminium plant seems to be in danger
AnRak Aluminium Ltd's aluminium refinery and smelter that has come up at Rachapalle in Makavarapalem mandal, nearly 70 kms from the city seems to be in trouble. Despite being completed over a month and a half ago at a cost of around Rs 4,500 crore, the 1.5 million tonne per annum capacity plant...
Pro Vedanta Group demands bauxite to run Vedanta refinery in Lanjigarh
Normal life was affected during a bandh observed at Lanjigarh in Odisha's Kalahandi district today demanding provision of bauxite mining facilities to Vedanta for smooth running of its alumina plant. During the shut-down, called by Lanjigarh Anchalika Bikas Parishad (LABP), local inhabitants took...
Tribal people seek complete closure of Lanjigarh alumina refinery
The Niyamgiri Surakshya Manch (NSS) has demanded that the Lanjigarh alumina refinery of the Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL) in Kalahandi district be completely closed. The demand was made at a public meeting organised in Munikhol of Muniguda block in Rayagada district on Thursday to mark the success...
Chinese firms cautious about building alumina refineries in Indonesia
Despite the Indonesian bauxite ban, Chinese firms are more careful about building alumina refineries in Indonesia, officials at one of the refineries in China said. One firm had cancelled its plans entirely. Bosai Minerals has withdrawn their plans to build a two million-tonne-a-year complex in...
Ministry of Environment rejects Vedanta’s Bauxite mining project at Niyamgiri
In a major setback to Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has turned down its proposal for bauxite mining at Niyamgiri hills in Odisha. Vedanta wanted to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri to feed its Rs 5,000-crore Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Odisha. “We...
Vedanta's Lanjigarh refinery hopes to run despite mining ban
On January 8, the proposal for providing the second round of forest clearing for Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC, which has a tie-up with Vedanta Aluminium for supplying Bauxite) was rejected by the environment ministry. OMC had proposed to get the forest cleared for mining ore in Lanjigarh reserve...
Alcoa buys raw materials from Ormet
Federal court records show Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc. will pay about $11 million to purchase 51,841 metric tons of carbon anodes from Ormet Corp., as the bankrupt company continues selling off raw materials needed to make aluminum. Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in...
Antam’s Alumina refinery in Indonesia to start operations in April
State-controlled miner Aneka Tambang plans to start commercial operations of its $450 million aluminum processing plant located in Tayan, West Kalimantan in April, trying to fulfill a government requirement on the export of value-added minerals. Tri Hartono, corporate secretary of the company known...
Vedanta seeks CM approval to run smelter facility
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) has sought the state government's approval to run its smelter unit at Jharsuguda and use 600 MW power from Sterlite Energy. The company's chairman, Anil Agarwal, has written to chief minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard recently, official sources said. "We have set up...
Utkal Alumina yet to reach full capacity
Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL), a subsidiary of Aditya Birla owned Hindalco Industries, is yet to reach its full envisaged capacity of 1.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) after starting of operation in June last year. So far, the company has managed to achieve 70-75 per cent capacity...
Orissa assures Vedanta of leasing laterite deposits for its alumina refinery in Orissa
The Orissa government has assured Vedanta Aluminium of leasing laterite minerals, which will help the company run its 1-million-tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa’s Kalahandi district. The state government has agreed to lease out laterite deposits in Rayagada and Koraput districts to VAL...
Ormet continues to sell materials
A purchase order shows Libertas Copper will pay about $3 million for approximately 430 metric tons of copper rods from bankrupt aluminum producer Ormet Corp., while the sale of Ormet's former Burnside, La. alumina refinery to Almatis Inc. is complete. The company continues selling the raw materials...
