Emirates Aluminium (Emal), the world's biggest single-site aluminium smelter in the making, will begin production this month (December), Reuters quoted a senior official at one of the joint venture's partners as saying.

Emal is a 50-50 joint venture between Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (Dubal) and Mubadala Development Company, Abu Dhabi's investment vehicle.

'It is virtually finished; in the next month, first hot metal will be produced,' Waleed Al Muhairi, Mubadala's chief operating officer, said in November.

'We will sell to two markets - China and Europe,' he said, adding the project would entail building an aluminum-based cluster around this facility.

The $5.7 billion project, located at Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi, will have a full production capacity of 700,000 tonnes of aluminum per year from the first phase, expected to be reached by December 2010.

The second phase will increase capacity to 1.4 million tonnes-1.5 million tonnes in 2013-2014.