Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC (EGA) announced yesterday that it signed an agreement with Indian aluminium titan Vedanta Limited to supply it with bauxite from its mining project in the west African country of Guinea.
The agreement, which commences in the latter half of 2019, will have EGA’s Guinean operations supply Vedanta with up to 12 million metric tons of bauxite per year upon full ramp-up of operations. The bauxite to be delivered under the arrangement will be shipped via Capesize ships in order to minimize cost and speed delivery of the ore.
Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, says the arrangement will benefit stakeholders in all three countries involved in the transaction.
“When GAC starts production it will be a new source of high quality bauxite for the world’s aluminium industry, benefiting the economies of Guinea, the UAE and countries like India. This agreement with Vedanta is an important milestone in the development of this project, and we look forward to reliably supplying them with bauxite in the years ahead through safe and responsible operations at GAC.”
EGA previously supplied Vedanta with a trio of sample shipments last year totaling 150 thousand metric tons. The sample shipments allowed Vedanta to test the ore in its refineries, which EGA contends is among the world’s highest-quality ore currently available.
Based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Emirates Global Aluminium is an aluminium conglomerate created by the merger between Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) in 2013. EGA had an estimated enterprise value of US$15 billion at the time the merger took place. The firm is owned equally by Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi and Investment Corporation of Dubai. Emirates Global Aluminium holds interests in bauxite/alumina and primary aluminium smelting. The firm produces around 2.6 million metric tons per year of cast aluminium, placing it at the third largest ex-China smelter.
The article has been updated to correct an erroneous claim that the Vedanta deal is worth $1.4 billion. That value refers to the GAC project.