The cost to built an Alumina refinery is about US$1000-1200 per tonne of alumina production capacity. The minimium viable size is around 1 million tonnes of alumina production capacity per year. Therefore around US$1.2 billion would be needed to build a 1 million tonnes of alumina per year plant. The ongoing production cost of alumina would be about US$ 70-100 per tonne depending mainly of the caustic prices at the time and the amount of reactive silica in the bauxite.
A million tonne capacity alumina plant would consume about 3 million tonnes of bauxite (Darling Range type/grade)per year.
If you build a built a smaller plant the cost to build and the operating cost per tonne of alumina would make it too expensive to be profitable if you are selling alumina into the market.
BAU Price at posting:
42.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
