Alcoa / Ma’aden aluminium plant commences ops
A joint aluminium smelting operation has commenced commercial operations at Ras al-Khair in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden) and Alcoa are the partners involved (with Alcoa owning a 25% share).
The $10.8 billion aluminium plant had had problems last year when one of the two smelting lines had to be shut during ‘ramp-up’.
The smelter can produce up to 740,000 tonnes of aluminium per year.
Alcoa sees the the Saudi project as very important to its business as the site will have one of the lowest production costs in the world for its size.
This is a major factor at a time where cost cutting is nearing the top of many agendas.
