United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that its bauxite mining subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation has shipped one million tonnes of bauxite ore since exports began in August.
GAC is currently ramping up production, which is expected to reach some 12 million tonnes per year.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “We are making good progress with our production ramp-up in Guinea, with mine, rail and port facilities all performing as planned. Many of our facilities are already running at design capacity, and the quality of bauxite we are producing for our customers is on target. Our priority throughout ramp-up and for the decades of production ahead is the safety of the 1,000 staff and contractors who work at GAC.”
Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is derived and is refined into alumina, the feedstock for aluminium smelters. EGA supplies GAC bauxite to third party customers, including in China and India.
EGA invested some $1.4 billion to develop GAC, one of the largest greenfield investments in the Republic of Guinea in the past 40 years.
GAC, and Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi which began production in April, expand EGA’s business upstream in the aluminium value chain. The projects create new revenue streams for EGA and help secure the supply of raw materials EGA needs at competitive prices.