Maintenance shutdowns at the new 1.4 million tpy Yarwun alumina refinery in Queensland were the major factor in lower like-for-like quarterly alumina output reported by global mining house Rio Tinto.
At 296,000t quarterly production at Yarwn was 15% higher than the year-earlier period, when the plant was still being ramped up to capacity, but 18% off the pace of the previous quarter's 360,000t.
The company's 39% take from its share in the Queensland Alumina refinery slipped more marginally to 365,000t in Q1 2007 from 369,000t in the year-earlier period (Q1 2006) and from 384,000t in the previous quarter (Q4 2006).
Rio's headline attributable alumina production figure fell to 661,000t in Q1 2007 from 778,000t in the year-earlier period but that also reflected the sale of its stake in the Eurallumina refinery in Italy to UC RUSAL in October last year.
It reported steady-state production of primary metal from its smelters of 211,700t in the first quarter, up 2% on the year-earlier period.
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