Total alumina production expected to exceed one million tonnes by end 2019

Production at $3.3 billion facility expected to reach nameplate capacity during the course of 2020

United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates, today announced a milestone at its new Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi, with 600,000 tonnes of alumina produced since the company began operations at the new refinery in April.

Al Taweelah alumina refinery is expected to produce more than one million tonnes of alumina in total by the end of 2019.

During August, average daily production of alumina was 88 per cent of Al Taweelah alumina refinery’s nameplate capacity.

Al Taweelah  alumina refinery is expected to reach sustained production at nameplate capacity during the course of 2020.

Once fully-ramped up, production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery is expected to be some two million tonnes of alumina per year, enough to meet 40 per cent of EGA’s alumina needs.

Some 589 people work in the operations team at Al Taweelah alumina refinery, including seasoned experts recruited from around the world and UAE nationals trained for roles in this new industrial activity for the UAE.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “Ramping up production at a new alumina refinery is a complex and challenging task, and we have been preparing for the ramp-up of Al Taweelah alumina refinery since before construction began. We have a world-class team operating EGA’s alumina refinery, and they are making great progress on this journey.”

Preparations to operate Al Taweelah alumina refinery took more than 500,000 hours of work.

Alumina refineries convert bauxite ore into alumina, the feedstock for aluminium smelters. EGA is importing bauxite ore to process at Al Taweelah alumina refinery from the Republic of Guinea.

EGA began production in August at Guinea Alumina Corporation, its bauxite mining project in Guinea. Bauxite from the GAC project is shipped to third party customers around the world.

Al Taweelah alumina refinery and the GAC project expand EGA’s business upstream in the aluminium value chain. The projects create new revenue streams for EGA and secure the supply of natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs at competitive prices.

Al Taweelah alumina refinery was the first to be built in the UAE, and only the second in the Middle East.

EGA invested some $3.3 billion to build Al Taweelah alumina refinery. The peak construction workforce was 11,542, from 20 countries. Construction took 72 million hours of work, equivalent to one person working for over 25,000 years.

The new plant contains some 9,500 instruments, 222 tanks, enough piping to stretch from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, and cabling that would reach from Abu Dhabi to Cairo. It covers an area equivalent to 200 football fields, and contains enough steel to build seven Eiffel Towers. 

EGA’s aluminium is the largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2018, EGA produced more than 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.

ENDS

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

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 2019

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