EGA announces completion of calcination process facility of Al Taweelah alumina refinery

Emirates Global Aluminium announced the completion of the calcination process facility of Al Taweelah alumina refinery after more than 2.4 million hours of work. Al Taweelah alumina refinery is the first to be built in the UAE to secure alumina needs of the UAE’s aluminium industry needs. The calcination process facility contains more than 1,700 instruments, over 100 motors, and some 165 kilometres of cabling.

Al Taweelah alumina refinery is expected to produce the first batch of alumina by the first half of 2019. More than 11,000 people are currently working on the approximately $3.3 billion project. 82 per cent of the construction has been completed by now.

The completion ceremony was attended by Her Excellency Riita Swan, the Finnish Ambassador to the UAE, EGA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Abdulla Kalban, and Kalle Härkki, Executive Vice President, Metals, Energy & Water of Outotec, the main contractor on the calcination process facility.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “The first completion of a major section of Al Taweelah alumina refinery is a significant milestone in the development of this huge project, which will secure for EGA the competitive supply of the feedstock for aluminium smelters. We continue to make good progress on the project as a whole. I congratulate everyone who has contributed to this achievement.”

EGA, which has aluminium smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is developing two major projects to expand its business upstream and internationally. Once full ramp up is achieved, Al Taweelah alumina refinery is expected to produce some 2 million tonnes of alumina per year, meeting 40 per cent of EGA’s alumina requirements.

EGA has signed an agreement with Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée in the Republic of Guinea for the supply of bauxite for the alumina refinery. EGA is also developing a bauxite mine and export facilities in Guinea.

Calcination is the final stage in the process of refining bauxite ore into alumina. The calcination process facility has two calciners with 84 metres length, 46 metres height, and with a production capacity of 3,500 tonnes per day each. The facility uses Outotec’s worldwide Circulating Fluid Bed technology.