Emirates Global Aluminium (Ega), one of the world's leading aluminium producers, said it has reached a major milestone in the construction of its Dh11-billion ($3 billion) Al Taweelah alumina refinery with 60 per cent completion of the calciners section of the project.

The Al Taweelah alumina refinery is currently one of the largest industrial construction sites in the UAE, with 5,900 people working on site. Peak construction manpower is expected to be more than 10,000.

A ceremony was held to celebrate the construction milestone which was attended by Ega's executive vice-president (upstream) Yousuf Bastaki along with Finnish ambassador Riitta Swan and Markku Teräsvasara, the chief executive of Finland-headquartered global minerals and metals technology company Outotec.

The construction of the refinery is progressing well with 37 per cent of the project already completed. It is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2018, said the statement from Ega.

The plant, which is set to be a critical part of the UAE’s growing aluminium industry, will refine bauxite ore into alumina, the feedstock for aluminium smelters.

Once operational, it will be capable of producing two million tonnes per year of alumina, some three-quarters of the alumina needs of the Al Taweelah smelter, it stated.

Currently, the UAE relies on third-party imports for all of its alumina needs, which amount to close to five million tonnes per year.

Ega has over 300 customers in around 60 countries worldwide including Ducab Aluminium Company and Taweelah Aluminium Extrusion Company which are contributing to the expansion of the UAE’s aluminium downstream industry.

Abdulla Kalban, Ega's managing director and chief executive, said: "We are creating an aluminium value chain for the UAE, and our partners such as Guinea, that stretches around the world. Al Taweelah alumina refinery is an important link in that chain. It creates jobs, economic opportunity and scope for further industrial development both at home and abroad. I am pleased that the project, and Outotec’s part in it, is proceeding so well.”

Bastaki said: "The Al Taweelah alumina refinery is a major investment by Ega in the future of the UAE’s aluminium industry. Producing alumina in Abu Dhabi, and mining bauxite in Guinea, will enable us to manage the cost of this important resource. That means the potential of the aluminium industry to contribute to the growth of our economy will be secured."

Teräsvasara said: “We are proud that Outotec was offered the opportunity to participate in this important project and are working hard to live up to the trust that the UAE has placed in us.”

Calcination is the final stage of the process of refining bauxite ore into alumina for use in an aluminium smelter, he added.

Located next to Ega’s Al Taweelah smelter, it one of the largest single-site aluminium smelters in the world, in the Khalifa Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi (Kizad).

The refinery is only the second to be built anywhere in the Middle East, and sees the UAE expanding upstream in the aluminium value chain.-TradeArabia News Service