Resource World Magazine

38 www.resourceworld.com a u g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 riO TinTO alcan pOurs firsT aluMiniuM aT upgraDeD sMelTer Rio tinto Alcan recently held a ceremo- nial first pour of molten aluminum at its upgraded smelter at Kitimat, northwest British Columbia. While shipments of aluminum have begun, full production will not be achieved until next year. The US $4.8 billion the Kitimat Modernization Project generated about 3,500 construction jobs and cut emissions of hydrocarbons, fluorides and greenhouse gases by about one-half, although sulphur dioxides emis- sions will rise. The upgrading will enable the company to increase aluminum pro- duction by 48% to 420,000 tonnes per year. The upgraded smelter will employ about 1,000 workers. The smelter receives bauxite ore from its own mines in Australia in a refined form called alumina – a white powdery material refined at its refineries in Queensland. When Rio Tinto Alcan built the opera- tion in Kitimat, in the 1950s, it also built a reservoir system, a transmission line system and the efficient Kemano hydro facility. The smelter, located on tidewater, has been in operation since 1954 and is strate- gically located to serve other Pacific Rim countries. The operation produces two product lines: sheet ingots and commercial grade trilok. Aluminium ingots are shipped primarily to customers in Canada, USA, Japan, South Korea and China. Sheet ingot recently became Kitimat's largest product line due to increas- ing demand and its world-class quality. Rectangular sheet ingots can be cast into pieces as large as 30 metric tonnes. Commercial Grade Trilock is the second major product line manufactured in Kitimat. These 23-kg ingots lock together for ease of transportation and storage. Unlike value- added sheet and billet ingots – to which alloys are added to produce specified char- acteristics – trilock ingots consist of pure aluminum. Sheet Ingot can be cut into smaller pieces to meet customer requirements. Kitimat Works' sheet ingots are used in many end applications, such as electronics, build- ing panels, lithographic, automotive, heat exchangers and household/medical foils. Commercial Grade Trilock is re-melted and re-cast by customers to meet the full range of aluminum end-uses. Demand growth for aluminum is expected to increase at around 4% per year through 2025. This is supported by grow- ing intensities in many applications – most notably the transport sector where manu- facturers are planning to use significantly more aluminium. Turning to market balance, global mar- kets were short by around 500kt in 2014. When looking forward over the medium term, the company expects the market to be approximately balanced. Demand strength will lead to a progressive reduc- tion of inventory levels, measured as weeks of consumption, trend back down towards eight weeks, in line with pre-global finan- cial crisis levels. The new smelter is being built to produce aluminum for another 50+ years. n b 250-784-3600 www.dawsoncreek.ca MT. pOlley Mine TO re-Open imperial Metals Corp. [iii-tsX; iPMLF-OtC] reports the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Environment have issued permit amendments that allow operations to resume at the Mount Polley copper-gold mine in the Cariboo region of BC. The permits allow a modified operation plan to process a maximum of 4 million tonnes of ore over one year (about 50% of capacity of the processing plant). Tailings from the processing, during modified operations, will be directed to, and stored in, the Springer pit. During the modified operation plan, ore will be mined from the Cariboo pit and the Boundary Zone underground workings. Rehabilitation and restoration of the areas affected by the August 2014 breach of the tailings embankment at the Mount Polley Mine will continue. n miNiNg

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