As China keeps adding higher-cost capacity for bauxite and alumina, Alumina becomes relatively lower cost still.
Approximately half of the alumina produced is used internally in the downstream division of primary metals.
Thus gives you alumina, aluminium oxide, which you then put through a smelter to make aluminium metal.
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In Sydney, however, miners moved higher, with Rio Tinto rising 1.7% and Alumina closing with a 3.7% gain.
So no one could buy the alumina to put through the big Russian aluminium factories to make aluminium.
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So, given climate change we can see that the alumina to aluminium part is going to have problems.
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And the market for bauxite and alumina, its main export goods, has been rockier than for other commodities.
And the reason why you need two tonnes to make one tonne is that alumina is aluminium oxide (Al2O3).
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The reason is that there are two new technologies vying to make the bauxite to alumina process more efficient.
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Those alumina to aluminium plants are always built where the energy is cheap.
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Last quarter, lower realized aluminum and alumina prices offset growth in downstream engineered products and gains from productivity improvements.
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Their apparatus consists of a polarisable rod, made of alumina, surrounded by electrodes.
The second problem is that that alumina is going to get very much cheaper over the next decade or so.
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The company purchases huge volumes of earths (like brown and white fused alumina), which are their raw material manufacturing inputs.
Alcoa also said it would suspend the expansion of the Wagerup alumina refinery in the Australian state of Western Australia.
Other competitors in the basic materials sector include: Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH), Alumina Limited (ADR) (AWC), and Noranda Aluminum (NOR).
Because Iralco would have been taking the alumina in payment for the energy that has to be used in producing the aluminium.
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Alumina Ltd. ( AWC - news - people )(AWC, 6.2) doesn't seem cheap at 27 times likely 2009 earnings.
For example, we know very well that it is possible to extract the rare earth metals from the wastes of alumina production.
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Alumina Ltd shares are currently trading off about 4% on the day.
At a briefing later, Goodyear said China was proving to be a strong market for iron ore, alumina and other raw materials.
The majority of alumina is shipped to third party aluminum smelter customers or is sold to customers that process it into chemical products.
Glencore had supplied Iralco with about five tons of alumina for every ton of aluminum that Glencore received in return, according to the intelligence report.
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Pricing for alumina and aluminum were up 9% and 11% respectively.
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It described how Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore provided Iralco with thousands of tons of alumina last year in exchange for a lesser amount of aluminum metal.
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However, if someone bought alumina, shipped it, then was willing to take payment in that aluminium that has been made, then money could be made all round.
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Shares of BHP Billiton fell 0.6%, while Alumina dropped 1.7%.
The company responsible for the alumina plant, MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company, has offered its condolences to the families of the bereaved but insists it did nothing wrong.
There are a number of metals that we get as by products of other mining processes already: gallium from alumina production, germanium from lead and zinc, indium from the same sources.
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And of course Iralco now has some alumina which it has bought, using its energy and the use of its plant to pay for it, which it can then process into aluminium for domestic use.
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