São Paulo – The Alcoa Group began operating a bauxite mine in the state of Pará this week. The mine received 13.4 billion reals (US$ 7.4 billion) in investment and is going to supply bauxite for alumina manufacturing at Alumar, a manufacturing complex in the state of Maranhão, in which Alcoa owns a stake. Initially, the new mine should generate 2.6 million tonnes of bauxite per year, according to information supplied by the company.
The project is an initiative of Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (Awac), a joint venture formed by companies Alumina Limited and Alcoa, and in which the latter owns a 60% stake. Aside from the mine, the local project included the building of a 50-kilometre railway line to transport the bauxite to the port, a road with the same length, also for product transportation, and premises at a port, as well as a processing plant.
The company based in Maranhão will expand as it starts receiving bauxite from Pará, which should increase alumina production from 2.1 million tonnes per year to 3.5 million. At the refinery, after the capacity is increased, Alcoa Alumínio and Awac are going to own a stake of 54%. Company BHP Billiton is going to own 36% and Rio Tinto Alcan, 10%.
At the peak of the project’s implementation phase, in October last year, 9,500 jobs were generated. Construction work required 28 million cubic metres of earth, 55,000 cubic metres of structural concrete, 26,000 tonnes of metallic structures and 7,000 tonnes of railway tracks.
The project was developed to be a model, with several initiatives geared towards insertion and benefiting the local community, as well as environmental preservation. The construction areas, for instance, were recovered using revegetation, in addition to the planting of 80,000 seedlings of trees indigenous to the region. In terms of social actions, among other things, a school of sustainability was created to provide training to local leaders and to seek financing for projects that will benefit the community.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
