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COMPANY NEWS WORLDWIDE
Jamaican Government grants
bauxite levy concession to Rusal
Québec, has announced that it has successfully
developed process parameters and a final
design for the production of smelter-grade
or high-purity alumina using fly ash which is
created during coal combustion. This is offers
attractive business opportunities for thermal
power producers worldwide. Fly ash typically
contains alumina concentrations ranging from
5-35% along with significant levels of silica,
iron, rare earths and rare metals. According
to the International Aluminium Institute (IAI),
approx. 43% of alumina produced worldwide
in 2011 was manufactured using coal as a
fuel source. Until now, fly ash produced by
coal-fired thermal power plants were stored
in reserves or discharged with few options for
recycling outside of cement processes.
Richard Boudreault, president and CEO of
Orbite, commented: “These results mean that
our technology could be used in new ways
that were previously unanticipated. Recovery
of the elements contained in fly ash would
not only solve an environmental liability but
also generate revenues for companies using
coal-based thermal power.” This new application
of Orbite’s technology is anticipated to
be economically viable, based on different
sources of fly ash, with an alumina content as
low as 15%. Orbite’s preliminary evaluation
projected recovery rates which are expected to
reach a minimum of 88% of alumina content
and 96% of other metals present.
Orbite announces final design
of smelter grade alumina plant
Orbite Aluminae Inc. with headquarters in
Saint-Laurent, Québec, has announced major
technical achievements and the final design of
the smelter-grade alumina (SGA) plant. With
the support of M & K, a North American leader
in chemical process design, Orbite successfully
modified the SGA plant design by incorporating
the best practices from the chemical
industry and expanding the breadth of its innovative
processes, resulting in a significant
reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels by
at least 30%, and of water by at least 60%.
These advancements should provide the basis
The Jamaican Government has granted a bauxite
levy concession to UC Rusal, which will ensure,
among other things, that the 600 local jobs are
maintained at the Ewarton Works refinery in
St. Catherine. This was announced by Minister
of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining,
Phillip Paulwell, early in October in a statement
to Parliament. He informed that during the
one-year concession period, from 1 October to
30 September 2013, Rusal will maintain the level
of production at the refinery at not less than
300,000 tpy, which is half the total capacity of
the plant.
“We also agreed that the Ewarton alumina
refinery will become a base location as of 2015,”
he said, explaining that a base location is considered
a primary source, or a main supplier of
alumina to smelting operations. It was further
agreed that the two other alumina plants operated
by Rusal – the Kirkvine and Alpart refineries
located in Manchester and St. Elizabeth
respectively, will, over time, also be designated
base locations for Rusal’s smelting operations.
Under the agreement, UC Rusal will invest
USD100m in a coal-fired electricity generating
plant. The engineering work on this plant will
commence at the end of the first quarter in
2013 and be completed by 2015. It will employ
800 people in the construction phase. The Minister
added that full production of alumina at
Ewarton will resume once construction of the
coal-fired energy plant is complete. “We are not
yet in agreement in relation to the other two
locations, and a time period of up to the end of
November 2012 has been allocated for those negotiations
to be completed. During this period,
the parties will finalise the start-up date as well
as the energy solutions for Kirkvine and Alpart,”
he said.
In addition, Cabinet has authorised negotiations
for the sale of the Government of Jamaica’s
7% shares in Windalco. Those negotiations
will also be completed by the end of November.
UC Rusal entered Jamaica’s bauxite and alumina
sector in 2007. The company currently controls
approx. 2.82m tonnes or 65.1% of Jamaica’s
installed alumina production capacity of 4.34m
tpy. The company is majority shareholder and
with 93% shareholding, is managing partner in
Windalco, which owns and operates the Ewarton
Works and the Kirkvine Alumina Refinery,
and 100% owner of the Alpart refinery.
Alumina refining at both Windalco plants
at Kirkvine and Ewarton ceased in 2009, and
operations at the Alpart plant ceased at the
end of May 2009. The Ewarton refinery was
re-opened in July 2010 but Kirkvine and Alpart
remain closed.
for a decrease of the estimated operating and
capital costs. The final design of the SGA plant
is expected to ensure the consistent production
of high-quality smelter-grade alumina,
while improving Orbite’s position as a low-cost
producer and leader for clean technologies for
the alumina industry.
As part of the final design of the SGA plant,
Orbite developed and incorporated a new proprietary
calcination technique using circulating
fluid beds that operate at lower temperatures
and enable the heat generated from calcination
to be reused in the hydrochloric acid
regeneration system, thereby, reducing fossil
fuel consumption by at least 30%. The final
design also reflects important changes to the
acid leaching and acid recovery / regeneration
systems. Water consumption has been reduced
by 60%, resulting in lower volumes of acid
solution. These lower volumes automatically
reduce the number of separation / crystallization
and acid regeneration units required, as
well as the number of units required for the
individual extraction of by-products. These
design improvements are anticipated to have
a considerable impact on the plant economics
since alumina calcination represented 55%
of fossil fuel costs, which in turn represented
60% of all SGA operating costs.
The SGA plant feasibility study, which has
now entered the detailed engineering and subsystem
integration phase, will be modified to
incorporate the final design of the SGA plant,
and is now anticipated to be completed during
the first half of 2013. Construction of the first
phase of the SGA plant is still anticipated to
begin in 2013 with completion by late 2014.
Ormet reduces operations
at Burnside refinery
Ormet Corp. has issued warn notices to 250
employees at its alumina refinery in Burnside,
Louisiana, primarily due to the already reduced
operating level at its aluminium smelting
operation in Hannibal, Ohio. The company
continues to actively pursue alternatives with
the State of Ohio and with AEP to mitigate
the impact on Ormet of the recent PUCO rulings
in the AEP Electric Security Plan (ESP)
rate case finalised on in August. The sizable
impact of this ruling and the dramatic increase
in the price of electricity in Ohio over the past
several years, in addition to the slack current
aluminium market, have forced Ormet to significantly
downsize its operations while exploring
strategic alternatives.
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