Aluminium Alba (Alba) reached several milestones in recent weeks in its run up to the commissioning of its Line 5 expansion.

One of them was the production of the first green anode from the newly completed Paste Plant. Both the green anode and the paste plant were completed on time and with safety as one of the main priorities, a company spokesman said.
He explained that the production of the first green anode was one of the three main steps in the manufacturing process of anodes, which are essential in the production of aluminium.  An average of 190,000 tonnes of green anodes are to be produced per year.
Solios Carbon is the main contractor for the Carbon Plant and all construction work has been sub-contracted to local contractors.
The $1.7 million Line 5 will have a capacity of 320,000 tonnes per year (tpy), raising Alba’s total capacity to around 840,000 tpy.
Another milestone was the completion of a project to install refractory lining materials in all 336 pots.
The project was completed ahead of schedule by R B Hilton and used over 30,000 tonnes of refractory materials.
The contract for the work, which started last April, was worth BD900,000 ($238,707).
“Our contract has been finished on schedule with more than 300,000 man-hours without a lost time accident and to the highest level of quality approval by equipment provider Pechiney,” said R B Hilton regional director Nigel Hughes.
Meanwhile, project reduction expansion manager Ahmed Mohammed Abdulla said the Line 5 project was still on schedule.
“We will have the first hot metal on March 7. However, it will take 100 days to start up and get it running at full capacity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Alstom, the main contractor for Alba’s new 660 MW Power Station 4 (PS4), achieved a record of 4 million man-hours without any Lost Time Injury (LTI).
“We are very pleased at this safety achievement made by Alstom and their sub-contractors working for the project,” stated Line 5’s power project expansion manager, Mahmood Asghar.  “All the staff working on this project have undergone a safety induction programme and are subjected to regular safety audits,” commented Asghar.
The Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for PS4 was awarded to Alstom on a turnkey basis in April 2003.