Hi Parkerkeith,"i think RIO are spending upwards of AUD3Billion...

Hi Parkerkeith,

"i think RIO are spending upwards of AUD3Billion on upgrades to their WA Aluminium refineries.
I could be wrong."

You are a little of the mark

WA Refineries comprise of 3 owned by Alcoa and one mainly by BHP (The JAPS own 14% as I recall).

RIO own Gove (NT), Yarwun (QLD) and 80% of QAL (QLD the other 20% is owned by Rusal)

In WA Worsely (BHP), Pinjarra and Wagerup (Alcoa) have all been either upgraded or in the process of being upgraded/considered (Wagerup's latest upgrade is on hold).

RIO's Gove had a huge upgrade a couple of years ago and Yarwun is currently being upgraded (maybe the source of your info).

The upgrades are all to improve the capacity of the refineries to make then more comparative

WA
Wagerup 2.6 Mtpa to 4.7 Mtpa (approved but delayed)
Pinjarra 4.2 Mtpa
Kwinana 2.2 Mtpa - unlikely to ever be upgraded due to its close proximity to major residential areas and limited land area on the Kwinana Strip.
Worsley 3.1 Mtpa
NT
Gove 3.8 Mtpa
QLD
QAL 3.95 Mtpa
Yarwun 1.4 Mtpa increasing to 3.4 Mtpa


Proposed BAU refinery 1.1 Mtpa

BAU's refinery is going to be by far the smallest in Australia and struggle to be competitive unless they have some new angles. I suspect that their "Acid Process" that they are patenting and in part propose to use at their refinery has some added benefits. The Bayer process is well established and to deviate from this must be due to some other side benefits. I suspect that the part Acid Process is being considered in order to extract other minerals from the ore that with the Bayer Process are discarded.

If this is the case then it may well explain BAU’s continued enthusiasm for a small refinery as these extracted other minerals may well make the smaller refinery more cost effective.

Note - all the numbers/facts are from my recollection and have not been recently verified so they may not be 100% up todate.


Newbie Thomas