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try. The aluminium smelter produced 93,000
tonnes of aluminium in 2012 and the wire rod
plant 8,000 tonnes.
The purchase agreement will secure the
long-term supply of alumina and electric power,
which are key requirements for the production
of aluminium. Trimet will have a 60%
majority stake in the production plants while
energy supplier EdF will take a minority stake
of 35%. Another 5% will be held by the staterun
Fonds Stratégique d’Investisse (FSI).
The transaction is conditional upon the approval
of the regulatory authorities and the
execution of an energy supply agreement and
a partnership arrangement with EdF, said Trimet.
Slovalco smelter signs
LoI for power supply
Hydro’s part-owned aluminium smelter in
Slovakia, Slovalco, has signed a Letter of Intent
(LoI) for power supply with Slovenské
Elektrárne. The LoI covers electricity supply
over an eight-year period as from 1 January
2014 with a total delivery of 19 TWh. The
LoI is a first move towards securing the total
framework that will enable continued operations
at Slovalco.
Since entering into the existing power
contract with Slovenské Elektrárne 20 years
ago, power prices in Slovakia have increased.
Slovalco will strengthen its competitiveness
through efficiency measures and cost cuts,
while in parallel working to achieve a competitive
future power supply. Slovalco is a fully
consolidated smelter in Hydro, owned 55%
by Hydro Aluminium AS. The plant has a production
capacity of 165,000 tpy.
Alba Potline 5 upgraded
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has announced
that Potline 5 has been upgraded to AP37
technology following an increase in the line
current to 370 kA. The upgrade increases the
smelter capacity by around 10,000 tpy.
Inalum to become 100%
state-owned company
The Indonesian government will completely
take over Indonesia Asahan Aluminium,
known as Inalum, in November, although negotiations
are still ongoing. That is what the
Indonesian Industry Minister M. S. Hidayat
told journalists recently. He said that the government
had already earmarked Rp7 trillion
(USD707m) for the takeover. Initially the government
had plans to sell its stakes to other investors,
but then changed mind to turn Inalum
into a state-run enterprise, in expectation of
larger state revenue from aluminium sales.
Inalum is currently 58.88% controlled
by the Japanese consortium Nippon Asahan
Aluminium and 41.12% controlled by the Indonesian
government. The smelter has a production
capacity of 260,000 tpy. There are
plans of the Industry Ministry to increase the
capacity to 450,000 tpy to meet domestic demand.
At present 40% of the output is sold on
the domestic market and 60% on the Japanese
market.
n
Bauxite and
alumina activities
Alufer’s Bel Air project in
Guinea hit by licensing delays
Junior bauxite producer Alufer Mining has
delayed construction of its Bel Air bauxite
project in Guinea by a year, due to licensing
delays. Construction is now predicted to start
in 2014, with product shipment expected in
2016. The delay at Bel Air stems from the
Guinea government’s steps to tie mining licenses
to their revised mining code. Alufer
submitted its licence application in October
2012, but Guinean authorities could not issue
the licence before concluding amendments to
the September 2011 mining code.
The junior miner has lined up financiers
and suppliers for Bel Air, and one of the deals
involves China’s Hongfan Industries, which
has agreed to a 5m tpy bauxite offtake arrangement
and to a prepayment arrangement
to help Bel Air into commercial production
within 24 months. Hongfan will buy half of
the planned production from Bel Air and will
pre-finance mine development.
Bel Air requires a USD310m capital outlay,
the bulk of which is targeted for supporting
infrastructure.
Hydro issues force majeure notice
due to power outages at Alunorte
Hydro issued a notice of force majeure to its
alumina customers as power outages and lowered
production at Alunorte alumina refinery
may affect alumina deliveries to customers.
On 18 May the refinery experienced a blackout
in its electrical power supply system due
to unexpected external events. As a consequence,
Alunorte suffered a partial electrical
power outage. On 2 June, while in the process
of stabilising and resuming production, Alunorte
experienced another, shorter black-out
caused by an unrelated external event. These
events caused serious disruption so that the
refinery has not been able to resume full production
of alumina.
Alunorte production levels will be lower
in the second quarter than in the first, and are
expected to remain unsatisfactory also for the
rest of the year. As a measure, Hydro has established
a team of experts aiming to stabilise
and increase production at the refinery.
Alunorte is the world’s largest alumina
refinery, with a nameplate capacity of 6.3m
tonnes.
Orbite signs offtake
agreement with Glencore
Orbite Aluminae Inc. has signed an offtake
agreement with Glencore International for
the purchase of smelter-grade alumina from
the corporation’s first proposed smelter-grade
alumina (SGA) plant in Quebec, Canada. The
agreement provides for the purchase for an
initial term of ten years from the beginning
of commercial production. The agreement also
foresees that Orbite and Glencore will undertake
negotiations relating to Glencore’s potential
financial participation in the ownership
and operation of the corporation’s proposed
SGA plant in Quebec.
Glencore Xstrata, the parent company of
Glencore International, is one of the world’s
largest global diversified natural resource companies
with revenues of USD236bn in 2012.
Well Harvest builds alumina
refinery in Indonesia
Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery, a
joint venture between Indonesian conglomerate
Harita Group and China’s Hongqiao
Group, has started construction of the first
alumina refinery in Indonesia. The USD1bn,
2m tpy plant will be built in Ketapang, West
Kalimantan. The refinery will be built in two
phases, with Phase I complete in 2015. The
initial phase is expected to cost USD500m
and will leave the facility with a capacity of
about 1m tpy. Completion of Phase II is scheduled
for 2017. Output from the refinery is intended
to be sold to Inalum, an Indonesian-
Japanese joint venture that will be taken over
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