Global metals heavy-weight Rio Tinto said it has approved a $1.8 billion expansion of its Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone in the eastern Australian state of Queensland. The project will more than double the plant's production capacity from 1.4 million tpy to 3.4 million tpy of alumina.
Work on the expansion will start in the third quarter of 2007 and is expected to take about three years to complete, Rio Tinto said. First shipments from the expanded plant are expected in the second half of 2010.
The refinery, which came on stream in 2004 and last year produced 1.24 million tonnes, draws its feedstock from the Weipa bauxite deposit.
Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto's chief executive, said: "The expansion of the Yarwun alumina refinery is one of the most significant investments made by Rio Tinto in recent years. The attractive fundamentals of the aluminium industry, combined with Yarwun's well located, low cost position and our excellent bauxite resource at Weipa, reinforce the deep underlying strength of the group's organic growth pipeline."
Oscar Groeneveld, Rio Tinto Aluminium chief executive, said: "This project firmly positions Rio Tinto in the first quartile of the alumina cost curve and creates the future supply for the growth in the world traded alumina market."
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