EMAL Hits the Smelter's Full Production on First Workday of 2011

ABU DHABI, UAE, January 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Smelter Also Releases Impressive Year end Numbers for 2010

Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) rang in 2011 by hitting their most momentous milestone to date - smelter's full production.

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On the last working day of 2010, EMAL energized the last of the 756 pots that make up the smelter.

"This is an incredibly exciting start to 2011 for us," said Saeed Fadhel Al Mazrooei, President and CEO of EMAL. "To start the year at full production capacity of the smelter means that we can now bring to a close the construction phase of EMAL and spend 2011with our full focus on ensuring we meet the production targets we've set for ourselves."

EMAL reached the New Year's milestone in impressive fashion. An average of 13.3 pots were energized each week over the course of 13 months - the highest rate of completion ever achieved by any Greenfield smelter. In doing so, the smelter produced an additional 76,000 tonnes of primary aluminium beyond what was originally forecasted for the year.

"We energized the last 100 pots in just 21 days at a rate of 33.3 pots per week" said Mazrooei. "It's an astounding feet that will truly serve as a benchmark for future projects. What we've been able to do here in a very short time is hugely impressive, but I'm even more proud of the safety record we achieved in the process. We did not cut corners in pursuit of speed, and our people always knew that our first priority was safety; also, noting that during the 13 months of work on the smelter's potlines, none of the 756 production pots were lost."

In addition to announcing the completion of the potlines, EMAL also released impressive year end numbers for 2010 from other operational areas of the smelting complex. The EMAL power station produced nearly 5.5 million mega watt hours in 2010.

In 2010, 811,000 tonnes of alumina, 140,000 tonnes of calcined petroleum coke and 24,000 tonnes of coal tar pitch were used by the smelter during production.

EMAL also validated their role in the economic diversification of Abu Dhabi by announcing that the finished product from the plant had been sent to 82 customers in 19 countries.