August 29, 2008

20% of Qatalum Mesaieed aluminum project complete

Doha Times reported that about 20% work on the USD 5.6 billion Qatalum’s aluminum project at Mesaieed has been completed. Qatalum plans to produce the first aluminum in late 2009. The first stage capacity will be 585,000 tonnes per year while the project targets ramping up capacity to 1.2 million tonnes per year.

Official at Qatalum said that site preparation at Mesaieed is already complete. Some 10 million tonnes of landfill have been used for site preparation in 200,000 truck loads. An average 1,500 truck loads of material were used every day.

Mr Truls Gautesen CEO and Mr Hassan al Rashid Qatalum deputy CEO of said that the project is being set up based on Hydro’s technology successfully implemented at its Sunndal 4 aluminum plant in Norway.

The Mesaieed plant will focus on producing aluminum casthouse materials such as extrusion ingots and primary foundry alloys. The facilities will include a 1,325 MW gas fired captive power plant, a modern casthouse, carbon plant and a new port for unloading raw materials. Mesaieed Industrial City, under Qatar Petroleum, will build a container berth adjacent to Qatalum’s berth eight to handle the export of final products. The project has already received the environmental impact assessment from the supreme council for the environment & natural reserves in 2007.