Alcoa Corp., Pittsburgh, announces that Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals has secured its first major third-party contract to supply approximately 400,000 bone dry metric tons (bdmt) of bauxite from its Huntly mine in Western Australia, furthering Alcoa’s strategy to grow its third-party bauxite business.
The Western Australia state government has also granted approval for Alcoa to export up to 2.5 million metric tons per annum of bauxite for five years to third-party customers.
“Bauxite exports have the potential to generate greater value from our mineral lease, creating additional revenue streams for Alcoa and the state of Western Australia (WA), while maintaining supply to our three refineries,” Mr. Dixon said.
The WA contract is one of three bauxite agreements recently signed worth a total of $126 million to deliver approximately 2.2 million bdmt of bauxite to customers in China in 2017. In addition to the WA contract, Alcoa will supply bauxite from its two mines in Brazil—Juruti and Mineração Rio do Norte — where Alcoa and AWAC hold an 18.2% equity investment. The two supply agreements for Brazil bauxite replace 2016 contract volume.
The contracts increase the total value of Alcoa’s 2016 and 2017 third-party bauxite supply agreements to nearly $600 million.
Alcoa, the world’s largest bauxite miner with 45.3 million bdmt of production in 2015, has mines in proximity to major markets and holds a first quartile cost curve position. Alcoa projects that the market for third-party bauxite demand will double between 2015 and 2024, with China as the biggest importer of bauxite.
