Aluminium Bahrain(Alba), soon to be the largest aluminium smelter in the world, announced that it has successfully started 106 pots in Line 6 on March 26.

 Line 6 comprises 424 pots and that leaves 318 pots to start-up in the coming months, the company said.   

 Speaking on this occasion, Alba board chairman Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa said: “We are pleased to have safely started 106 pots which equates to 25 per cent of Line 6 capacity.  Our next milestone is to reach 50 per cent by the end of April and we expect full completion of Line 6 in early Q3 2019.

 “I would like to thank all of our employees and contractors for taking Extreme Ownership on Safety during the Line 6 start-up,” he said.

Alba had announced in February 2019 the successful testing and operation of 40 pots at Line 6 smelter.

The Line 6 Expansion Project will make Alba the world’s largest aluminium smelter. With the first hot metal from Potline 6 achieved on December 13, 2018, Alba is now amongst the one-million-tonne smelters in the world. Upon completion in 2019, the Line 6 Expansion Project will boost Alba’s per-annum production by 540,000 tonnes, bringing Alba’s total production capacity to 1.5 million tonnes per year.

Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project is one of the biggest brownfield developments in the Middle East Region. With a Capex of approximately $3 billion, the Line 6 Expansion Project involves the construction of a sixth potline using EGA’s proprietary DX+ Ultra Technology, a 1,792 MW power station (Power Station 5) utilising the world’s first H-class General Electric (GE) 9HA gas turbine (GT) and other industrial services.

Bechtel is the EPCM contractor for the smelter project and for Power Station 5 (PS 5), GE and Gama Consortium was awarded the EPC contract, while Siemens is the Power Distribution System contractor. 

 Alba also achieved a major construction safety milestone by clocking 30 million working-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) at its Line 6 smelter, last month.

Commenting on the feat, Shaikh Daij said: “Alba believes in ‘walking the talk’ on matters in relation to safety, health and environment. This achievement underlines Alba’s strong commitment to Safety and the Extreme Ownership of our Safety by both, our employees and contractors.”

“I applaud everyone for their contribution in achieving this milestone as we continue to ramp-up Line 6 safely and on time,” he added.

Earlier, the Annual General Meeting of Alba approved the transfer of BD59.992 million ($159.14 million) to retained earnings. The AGM also approved the recommendation on the board of directors’ total remuneration of BD210,000 for the year ended December 31, 2018, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.