Director General of EGA's GAC recognised by World Bank's MIGA for contribution to advancing women and gender equality

United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the world’s largest premium-aluminium producer, today announced that the Director General of its bauxite mining and export subsidiary, Guinea Alumina Corporation, has been recognised by the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, for her role in advancing women and gender equality.

Aïssata Béavogui, the first woman to hold such a senior position in Guinea’s mining industry, received the ‘Gender CEO’ award at a ceremony in Washington DC, before International Women’s Day which takes place tomorrow.

MIGA’s ‘Gender CEO’ award recognises senior managers who have a demonstrated track record of advancing women and gender equality while contributing to the World Bank Group’s twin goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity. The theme of the 2020 award was ‘Women Driving Growth in Africa’.

In addition to her career-long commitment to advancing women and promoting gender equality, Ms. Béavogui was recognised for GAC’s ongoing work to empower women. GAC ensures women, who often work land that is owned by men, are included in the compensation process when land is acquired for mining and other operations GAC also promotes training and microcredit programs to assist women in communities neighbouring its operations to start their own businesses.

EGA’s Chief Executive Officer, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, said: “I applaud Aïssata for this achievement, which recognises her work in promoting the role of women in Guinean society over many years as well as at GAC.  As the late Sheikh Zayed said ‘The woman is half of the society; any country which pursues development should not leave her in poverty or illiteracy’. This has driven our own work in Guinea, and Aïssata has been at the forefront of it.”

MIGA Executive Vice President Hiroshi Matano said: “MIGA appreciates its partnership with Guinea Alumina Corporation, and we think that shining a spotlight on you and the work of the company in Guinea will encourage new investments in the country that are essential for generating positive results in terms of development.”

Ms. Béavogui said: “This award is recognition for everyone at GAC and EGA. In my role as Director General, and as a proud Guinean woman, I want to play my part in ensuring the benefits of mining development are maximised throughout the Boké region. In particular I want to make sure that women are especially considered in all our decisions and actions, and that they have a voice, commensurate with the important role they play in our society.”

Ms Béavogui was appointed Director General of EGA’s GAC in 2016 and, since September 2019, she has also served as the company’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility.

In both Guinea and the UAE, EGA champions the role of women in heavy industry. In the UAE, women hold almost 20 per cent of supervisory roles at EGA. In Guinea, Ms Béavogui is the first woman to serve as Director General in the mining industry.

MIGA promotes cross-border investment in developing countries by providing political risk insurance and other guarantees to investors and lenders, and participated in GAC’s landmark $750 million project financing which closed last year.

EGA developed GAC as part of its strategic expansion upstream in the aluminium value chain, to create new revenue streams and to secure at competitive prices raw materials needed by the UAE aluminium industry.

GAC produces bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is derived. EGA has also built an alumina refinery at Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi, which refines bauxite into alumina, the feedstock for aluminium smelters.

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Contacts at EGA:
Simon Buerk|
sbuerk@ega.ae
056 3111 536

Fatima Al Mutawa
falmutawa@ega.ae
050 327 7545

About EGA  

Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2018, EGA produced 2.6 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 350 customers in over 60 countries. Over 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Over 10 per cent of EGA’s aluminium production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports 60,950 jobs. EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA’s Al Taweelah site became the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. ASI certification is the aluminium industry’s internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

EGA’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.

EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA’s alumina refinery is the first in the UAE and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and will supply 40 per cent of EGA’s needs once fully ramped-up.

Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project is one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae.  

© Press Release 2020