Emirates International Aluminum Company announced yesterday the realization of the long Alumina refinery, a significant step in the production process of the giant refinery, as it reached the maximum production capacity in the process of converting bauxite ore to alumina ore last June.
The company indicated in a statement that this achievement comes only 14 months after the start of alumina production operations, in April of last year, achieving a world-class level of performance, which was achieved taking into account security and safety procedures, without any injuries recorded during this period.
The task of alumina refineries involves treating bauxite ore and converting it into alumina in a process that takes place through major steps, which require that the refinery temperature reach 1000 degrees Celsius and twice the atmospheric pressure 100 times.
New alumina refineries may take several years to reach a month of full production at every step of the process.
Zahir Al Habtari, Executive Vice President of Initial Production Operations and Capital Projects at Emirates International Aluminum Company said, “Our preparations for operations started early, as we started planning since October 2013, before we started implementing the Al Taweelah Alumina Refinery project.”
He added, "Through careful planning, the company was able to increase production for this important project."
It is noteworthy that the Al-Taweelah Refinery is the first of its kind in the UAE to convert bauxite to alumina, which is the main material used in aluminum smelters. The Emirates International Aluminum Company’s investment in this project amounted to about $ 3.3 billion (12.1 billion dirhams).
- New alumina refineries take several years to reach full production.