The Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil.
Norwegian aluminium company Norsk Hydro on Wednesday announced that it would shut down its Alunorte alumina refinery and its Paragominas bauxite mine, in Brazil, owing to a dispute with authorities over water discharges from the refinery.
The refinery – the world’s largest alumina producer – has been operating at 50% capacity since a March 1 embargo, after heavy rainfall in the previous month caused flooding, prompting questions over unauthorised spills of waste water.
Hydro said it had to shut its operations as the refinery’s bauxite residue deposit area 1 was close to reaching its capacity, and that it was unable to make use of a new one-billion-real press filter and a newly developed bauxite residue deposit area to continue operations.
The company said that the decision to close Alunorte and Paragominas would have “significant operational and financial consequences, potentially also for Hydro’s primary aluminium portfolio, including Albras”.
“Our people have been working hard during the last seven months to maintain safe operations and preserve jobs. This is a sad day because we have the world’s most advanced technology available to continue safe operations, which we are prevented to use, and this will impact jobs, communities, suppliers and customers,” commented Hydro executive VP for bauxite and alumina, John Thuestad.
Alunorte and Paragominas have granted collective vacations to about 1 000 employees to preserve jobs and mitigate the impacts of the reduced activity.
In July, Paragominas temporarily suspended work contracts for 80 employees and terminated 175 contractors.
Thuestad said that the company would continue to work with authorities to lift the embargo and to reopen operations.