Alcoa’s 16kg aluminium wheel could change fleet efficiency equation
A truck’s overall weight comes from dozens of components, including the engine, chassis, tyres, etc. Wheels are one area where fleets can explore lightweighting. Traditional steel wheels, widely used across the transport industry, are known for their robustness. Forged Alcoa aluminium wheels offer...
Coal-heavy Australian aluminium vs renewables-led New Zealand: How Oceania is balancing decarbonisation
Oceania’s primary aluminium industry is facing a fragmented energy transition. While Australia, the leading aluminium producer of the continent, has abundant renewable resources and a well-established aluminium value chain, its smelters remain significantly more dependent on fossil-fuel-based...
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Vegetation growth on bauxite area causing hindrance to optimal bauxite production
The Nawailevu Bauxite mine in Vanua Levu is providing new returns for workers through the farming of vegetables and fruits at the site following extraction. Workers at the site have been planting farming produce at the site once bauxite has been extracted. While visiting the Nawailevu bauxite mine...
Government postpones sale of Meridian Energy shares
The Government postponed an announcement this week on the sale of shares in Meridian Energy, sparking doubts about whether the sell-off will go ahead on schedule in November. Opposition MPs believe the sale has been stalled by embarrassing revelations about the public bailout of Tiwai Pt aluminium...
Key ignored advice over smelter deal: Treasury
Prime Minister John Key was on the phone to Pacific Aluminium boss Sandeep Biswas offering him millions of taxpayer dollars to keep the Tiwai Point smelter open, just two days after his ministers largely discarded the idea, Treasury documents show. The documents released yesterday show Mr Key...
Tiwai Point payment 'should be rejected'
Treasury advised the Government not to pay the owners of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter to keep the business running during negotiations over power prices with Meridian Energy, documents released this afternoon show. Early last month the Government made a one-off payment of $30 million to New...
Aurum Exploration contributes to community assistance program in Bua, Fiji
Aurum Exploration (Fiji) Ltd has given $25,000 to the people of Bua as part of its community assistance program. Company executive Sang Lei said the funds were given to the provincial office to help with scholarships for students. The bauxite mining company has assisted students in other academic...
More mineral sites found at Bua, Fiji
More bauxite deposits have been identified in Vanua Levu says director for Mineral Resources Department, Malakai Finau. Mr Finau said there were other sites which were being explored for deposits of the mineral. "Some of the exploration sites that are being earmarked are in Nasarawaqa, Wainunu,...
BHP Billiton names Mike Fraser president, Human resources
Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd Monday said Mike Fraser would join the Group Management Committee as President, Human Resources, which is part of the role currently held by Karen Wood who is President - People and Public Affairs. Fraser is currently Head, Group Human Resources based at the company's...
MUA backs down over Alcoa's use of foreign crews
The Maritime Union of Australia has backed down on demands that the government block aluminium giant Alcoa from gaining a temporary licence to use a foreign-manned vessel to move cargo from its refineries in Western Australia to its smelter in Victoria. The MUA yesterday accused Alcoa of trying to...
Alumina reports $33 million profit
Mining companies have been cheering the fall of the dollar, none more so than Melbourne-based Alumina, which has disclosed a $US30 million ($33m) annual profit before tax price sensitivity to just a 1c move in the US exchange rate. For a firm that has been struggling to break-even at best of late,...
Meridian Energy loses significantly on its commercial value
Meridian Energy - the jewel in the Government's portfolio of crown assets - may be worth nearly $2 billion less than it was valued at a year ago when it is finally listed. In its 2012 statement of corporate intent released in September last year Meridian Energy estimated its commercial value to the...
South Port posts record profit even as smelter cuts production
Record imports of fertiliser and a resurgence of log exports were not enough to make up for the business lost to South Port when New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) cut production at its Tiwai aluminium smelter. The operator of Bluff's port reported cargo volume declined by 7 percent to 2.51...
Bauxite mining gets green signal in Bua, Fiji
Another landowning unit in Bua has given its consent for bauxite mining on its piece of land, 500 metres from the existing mining area in Nawailevu. This will be the second mining area in the province of Bua on Vanua Levu. Members of the mataqali Naita from the village of Votua in the district of...
Alcoa welcomes Govt's decision to extend Wagerup refinery's environmental licence
Alcoa welcomes the Environment Minister's announcement today to amend the Wagerup refinery's environmental licence to increase the refinery's annual production limit from 2.6 to 2.65 million tonnes a year. This is not an expansion of the refinery. An increase in the production limit by 50,000...
Tiwai Point Smelter deal was aimed to save the economy: PM John Key
The only reason the Government offered $30 million to Rio Tinto to keep the Bluff aluminium smelter open was because it is such a large part of the economy, Prime Minister John Key says. Asked at his weekly press conference why the Government hadn't supported other industries threatening to close,...
Meridian Energy writes down its asset value after negotiating with Tiwai Point smelter
Meridian Energy has posted a 53 percent increase in underlying net profit after tax of $162.7 million, but has had to write down the total value of its assets by $476m after renegotiating the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter power deal. The new deal, announced last week, gives the smelter cheaper...
Rio's cancellation of the divestment plans for Pacific Aluminum not to impact its stakeholders
Rio Tinto's decision to call off the divestment plans for its Pacific Aluminium unit will not impact stakeholders of Australian Boyne Aluminium Smelters and the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, a spokesman for Sumitomo Chemical, which has stakes in both companies, said Friday. "Following a...
Share price the priority behind Govt's investment on Tiwai Point smelter
NZ Finance Minister Bill English was transparent about the reasons for injecting $30 million into the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Not known as a champion of government intervention, especially when it involves injecting taxpayers' money into struggling businesses, English said the deal would...
Rio drops plans for Pacific Aluminium unit sale
Rio Tinto has scrapped plans to sell its Pacific Aluminium division, blaming tough market conditions after reporting first-half underlying earnings down almost a fifth on last year. Rio has been trying to divest the business, which is comprised of its Australasian aluminium smelters and the Gove...
