Emirates Global Aluminium signs deal to supply bauxite to UK-based Vedanta

UAE-based Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has signed an agreement to supply bauxite from its mining project in Guinea to UK-based mining company Vedanta.

Under the long-term agreement, EGA will provide Vedanta with the ore from 2019. Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is derived.

EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) is building a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in Guinea, in one of the largest greenfield investments in the country in the past 40 years.

GAC’s total budgeted project cost is approximately $1.4bn.

The first bauxite exports from the project are expected during the second half of 2019.

Once fully functional, GAC is expected to produce some 12 million tonnes of bauxite per year.

Also read: Emirates Global Aluminium completes 50% of $1.4bn bauxite mine in Guinea

EGA supplied Vedanta with three sample shipments of bauxite from GAC in 2017, to enable testing of the ore in Vedanta’s alumina refinery.

The sample shipments totalled approximately 150,000 tonnes.

Under the agreement, EGA will ship the bauxite from Guinea to India using Capesize vessels, amongst the largest bulk cargo ships in the world.

Abdulla Kalban, managing director and CEO of EGA said: “When GAC starts production it will be a new source of high quality bauxite for the world’s aluminium industry, benefiting the economies of Guinea, the UAE and countries like India.

“This agreement with Vedanta is an important milestone in the development of this project.”

EGA is also building an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi, to refine bauxite ore into alumina which is the feedstock for aluminium smelters.

Bauxite for EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery will be supplied by Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée under a separate agreement, with the first shipment arriving last week.

The first alumina from the Al Taweelah refinery is expected to be delivered during the first half of 2019.

The Al Taweelah alumina refinery is expected to meet 40 per cent of EGA’s alumina needs once it is fully operational.