TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Speciality alloys manufacturer Alcoa will stop production at its Suralco alumina refinery, in Suriname, as a result of falling bauxite ore supplies.
In line with its strategy to reduce its refining and smelting capacity to focus more on the downstream aerospace and automotive products sectors, the US company said on Monday that it would curtail 887 000 t of enduring refining capacity at Suralco by November 30, when the refinery would be shuttered.
The company expected to book a charge of $65-million to $75-million, or $0.05 to $0.06 a share, in the second half of 2015, half of which would be recorded in the third quarter. About 80% of the charges were noncash.
The Suralco refinery had a refining capacity of 2.2-million metric tons a year.
The curtailment followed Alcoa’s March announcement on the evaluation of 2.8-million tons of refining capacity for possible curtailment or divestiture. This was in line with the company’s 2016 goal of lowering its position on the world alumina cost curve to the twenty-first percentile. Alcoa curtailed 443 000 t/y of alumina refining capacity in March, in addition to the 876 000 t it had already idled.
Discussions between Alcoa and Suriname began in October 2014 to reach a joint solution for Suralco that had faced expiring bauxite reserves and lacked a long-term energy solution.