Saudi Ma’aden Restarts Aluminium Plant Production Line

Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has restarted one of the two potlines at its new aluminium smelter in Saudi Arabia, the company said on Sunday.

The $10.8-billion aluminium plant at Ras al-Khair, a joint venture between Ma’aden and U.S.-based Alcoa, shut one of its smelting lines in mid October due to problems encountered during a ramp up of production.

“The ramp up and increase of the first potline production is expected to reach production capacity within the second quarter of 2014,” Ma’aden said in a Saudi stock market statement. It did not say when production resumed.

The other potline, a series of containers used to smelt aluminium, did not have to shut during its initial ramp up. The two lines have a combined production capacity of 740,000 tonnes a year of aluminium.