Aughinish, Ireland
Rusal Aughinish Alumina is the largest alumina refinery in Europe and the largest of the alumina facilities operated by UC RUSAL.
The plant was built between 1978 and 1983 and had an initial rated capacity of 800,000 tonnes a year. The current annual capacity of the refinery is in excess of 1.9 million tonnes of alumina. Rusal Aughinish has always been to the forefront in terms of technology in the industry. Year after year it implements the most modern technologies available to ensure it remains one of the top alumina producers in the world.
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Gladstone, Australia
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) commenced production in March 1967 with an annual production rate of 600,000 tonnes of alumina. Today it is one of the world‘s largest alumina refineries, producing almost 4 million tonnes of the world‘s best smelter grade alumina per year.
The refinery covers 80 hectares of a 3,050 hectare site on the south-east outskirts of the city of Gladstone. Adjacent to the plant is a wharf and storage facility on South Trees Island, which is connected to the mainland by a causeway bridge.
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Jamaica
Alcan (now Rio Tinto) has had a long history in Jamaica, constructing two alumina refineries there in the 1950s. In 2001 Alcan sold its bauxite mining and alumina plants in Jamaica but kept responsibility for many of the bauxite residue sites with the intention of safely remediating them to an agreed standard and transferring ownership to the Government of Jamaica. The agreed objective was maximum biodiversity rather than housing or agricultural use.
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Kwinana, Australia
Alcoa's Kwinana alumina refinery is located 45 kilometres south of Perth, Western Australia.
Opened in July 1963, the plant has been upgraded and improved over the years, and now has a production capacity of more than two million tonnes of alumina every year. Today, Kwinana employs about 1,000 people plus a significant contractor workforce, with approximately 60% of them living in the neighbouring townships of Kwinana, Cockburn and Rockingham.
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Yarwun, Australia
Rio Tinto Alcan Yarwun is a world class alumina refinery situated ten kilometres north-west of Gladstone in Central Queensland.
Each year, roughly 3.2 million tonnes of bauxite from Rio Tinto Alcan’s mining operations in Weipa on Western Cape York are shipped to Gladstone to be processed into alumina at the Yarwun refinery.
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