Emirates Global Aluminium CEO & MD Abdulla Kalban
Industrial company Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has signed an agreement to supply metals miner Vedanta Limited with bauxite from its mining operation in Guinea from 2019.
EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) is building a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in Guinea.
First bauxite exports from the $1.4-billion GAC project are expected during the second half of 2019.
Once fully ramped up, GAC is expected to produce about 12-million tonnes a year of bauxite.
EGA CEO and MD Abdulla Kalban said much of Guinea’s bauxite is among the highest quality in the world.
“When GAC starts production, it will be a new source of high-quality bauxite for the world’s aluminium industry, benefiting the economies of Guinea, the United Arab Emirates and countries such as India.”
EGA supplied Vedanta with three sample shipments of bauxite from GAC in 2017 to enable testing of the ore in Vedanta’s alumina refinery. The sample shipments totalled about 150 000 t.
EGA will ship the bauxite from Guinea to India using Capesize vessels.
EGA is also building an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi to refine bauxite ore into alumina, which is the feedstock for aluminium smelters.