Qatari smelter Qatalum coasted towards full readiness for the production of its first aluminium when it took delivery of the first shipment of raw material in the last week of October.

A vessel with 3,506 tonnes of pitch docked at Qatalum's own raw materials receiving Berth Number 8 at Mesaieed Port. Pitch is a coal tar-based product required for the making of anodes which are in turn used as the positive electrode in the electrolysis process of creating aluminium.

Prepared for its unloading were the port and utilities team and the carbon team. At 8:00 am, the discharge arm at the dock was connected to unload the pitch stored at 200°C aboard the vessel.

'The safe unload of Qatalum's first liquid pitch cargo is a great achievement,' said Hassan Al Rashid, deputy CEO.
The unloaded material was pumped into one of the world's largest dedicated pitch facilities near the smelter, adjacent to the port. The heated tanks store the pitch at 200 Degree Centigrade ready for use in the production of anodes.

David Beach, carbon technical performance manager, added, 'It has involved close cooperation between Qatalum operational and maintenance teams, Qatalum project teams and our suppliers. The completion of our first unloading has been a true team effort and represents the culmination of months of planning and preparation drills.'

The day marked another of Qatalum's important key achievements and furthers the transition from project execution into Qatalum operations. The CEO, Jan Arve Haugan, who recently took over from Truls Gautesen,    acknowledged this by adding; 'I'm glad that this is another proof of a focused cooperation by our teams.'

Qatalum is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Hydro, and the project is now entering its final construction phase. The smelter is expected to start up around the end of the year, ramping up production towards full capacity at 585,000 tonnes a year during the third quarter of 2010.

It will be the largest green-field smelter ever built in a single phase. The smelter comprises two 1.2 km long pot rooms containing 352 cells each, a Casthouse which produces 350,000 tpy of extrusion ingots and 275,000 tpy of foundry alloys. The adjacent Carbon Plant will prepare and supply 300,000 tpy of baked anodes and recycle 63,000 tonnes of spent anodes.

Power for the smelter will be generated from the captive power plant of 1,350 MW.

The markets that Qatalum will target are the GCC, Mediterranean, Asian and North American.

Qatalum considers 'Quality Qatarisation' as a top priority. By cooperating and coordinating with Qatar Petroleum and educational institutions in Qatar, Qatalum is strongly committed to national development at all levels. Qataris will be working with the most experienced people in the aluminium industry and will be offered a chance to further develop through the different initiatives in place, one of which is Qatalum's sponsorship programme. 

Top Hydro officials Terje Vareberg, head of the board, and Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, the CEO, visited the project in early October and met with Qatar's Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, and Qatalum chairman Abdulla Salatt.

'Qatalum is an important industrial development for us and a product of 40 years of cooperation between Hydro and Qatar,' said Salatt.

New Qatalum CEO Haugan had a broad career in Hydro, having previously held leading positions in Hydro's former oil and gas business and played a key role in the expansion of the Sunndal primary aluminium plant in Norway from 2002 to 2004. Until April 2009, he headed the primary metal business' technology area, and until taking over his present post was head of the company's international smelter portfolio.

 'We will now enter into the challenging transition phase between construction and operation with openness, trust and courage,' Haugan said.