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smelter-grade alumina projects in
west Kalimantan province, and no
groundwork has started. In October
2008, Antam signed a joint venture
agreement with China’s Hanzhou
Jinjiang group to build a 1m tpy alumina
refinery in Mempawah by 2011.
Antam now delayed this alumina
project in Mempawah, West Kalimantan
province, due to prolonged
feasibility studies. Antam also has a
heads of agreement with UC Rusal to
explore bauxite and to build a 1.2m
tpy alumina refinery in Munggu Pasir.
There is no delay yet – progress for
both projects is still going on, but very
slowly – and the Mempawah project
could still be completed after the 2011
schedule.
Rio Tinto Alcan Mining Operation, Weipa,
Australia
In September, Antam delayed its
300,000 tpy chemical grade alumina
project in Tayan, West Kalimantan
province, due to rising costs. Construction
will now start in 2010 instead
of 2009. Projected costs have
exceeded the initial budgets, rising to
USD400m due to materials and processes.
This project is 65% owned by
Antam, 20% by Showa Denko KK, and
15% by Marubeni Corp. Early exploration
started and a 25,000-tonne test
batch of bauxite was shipped to Japan
in August. Commissioning had previously
been scheduled for 2012. There
is no official production target yet for
the Tayan mine, which was to replace
Antam’s 1m tpy Kijang bauxite mine
ALUMINIUM · 4/2010
Rio Tinto Alcan
in Pangkalpinang that reached the
end of its life in August.
AUSTRALIA
At the end of January 2009, newly
listed Cape Alumina announced that
construction of the 7m tpy Pisolite
Hills bauxite project in Queensland,
Australia, would start in early 2011.
Cape Alumina’s listing on the Australian
Securities Exchange raised more
than A$15m (USD9.5m). Cape Alumina
will be the second significant
bauxite producer in Australia (after
Rio Tinto), and intends to start its
Pisolite Hills project in 2012/13 with
a mine life of at least twelve years.
Metallic Minerals owns 32% of Cape
Alumina, whose major shareholder
includes Chiping Xinfa Huaya Alumina
Co. and Resource Capital Fund.
Production from the Pisolite Hills
project is mainly for export to China’s
alumina refineries. Cape Alumina is
set to commission its 7m tpy Pisolite
Hills bauxite project in Australia’s
Cape York in 2013/14 and already has
a five-year, 1m tpy off-take agreement
with major shareholder Chiping Xinfa
Huayu Alumina Co.
At the end of June, Cape Alumina
had raised the estimated bauxite resource
on its proposed 7m tpy Pisolite
Hills project by 30% to 130m tonnes.
The bauxite is suitable as a blending
feed for the new breed of low-temperature
Bayer-process refineries in
China. At the end of October, Cape
Alumina announced plans for building
an alumina refinery as part of
their ‘vision’ but there are no concrete
plans. In the case that Cape Alumina is
ready for an alumina refinery, Papua
New Guinea would be a logical choice
for its deepwater port and cheap gas.
Cape Alumina can reap an estimated
25 to 30% in cost savings compared
to similar projects by its decision to
locate mine infrastructure and the
accommodation village in Port Musgrave
instead of in the Pisolite Hills.
Cape Alumina is also looking into
mining 1-2m tpy of bauxite from a
tenement 2 km from the barge loading
site to provide early cashflow for
the 7m tpy Pisolute Hills project. In
the first five years of Pisolite Hills
production, Cape Alumina will be
ECONOMICS
looking at securing off-take deals for
no more than 60 to 70% of output,
with the rest going to spot sales.
In November, Norsk Hydro and its
joint venture partner United Minerals
Corp. relinquished their mining
licence to set up bauxite operations
at Mitchell Plateau in Western Australia.
The decision terminates an agreement
the Norwegian alumina and
aluminium producer signed with the
Perth-based miner in November 2007
under which the companies planned
to build an integrated bauxite and alumina
facility in the region. Hydro had
a 75% stake in the project, which was
estimated to cost A$4-5bn (USD3.3-
4.2bn). Early stages of drilling had
started at the site, but the grade or
bauxite capacity of the site had not
been determined yet. Both companies
had signed a memorandum of understanding
for the joint venture in May
2007.
EUROPE
Bosnia: At the beginning of April,
Bosnia’s sole alumina plant Birac
announced 2009 output cuts by two
thirds to 120,000 tonnes of alumina because
of the economic crisis. Birac, in
the eastern town of Zvornik, launched
a restructuring in 2008 which helped
to generate a small profit of 206,000
Bosnian marka (USD140,000). The
company reported losses of 9.5m
marka in 2007 and 3.75m marka in
the first quarter of 2008. Birac announced
an output of 70,000 tonnes
of zeolite in 2009, up from 45,000 produced
in 2008. Since 2006, the plant,
majority-owned by Lithuania’s Ukio
Bank Investment group, has operated
at 50% of its capacity of 600,000 tpy
because of low prices and the high
cost of electricity and gas. The government
of Bosnia’s Serb Republic,
one of the country’s two autonomous
regions, agreed to reschedule part of
the debt.
Ireland: In April, UC Rusal cut
alumina output by more than 60% at
its Aughinish plant in Ireland due to
poor market conditions. Production
dropped to 630,000 tpy out of total capacity
of 1.8m tpy. Rusal had already
cut output at Aughinish in January by
37% to 1.17m tpy.
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