Rio Tinto Alcan Inaugurates Specialty Aluminas Facilities in Gardanne, France
26/10/2007 12:55
PR Newswire
PARIS, October 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Rio Tinto Alcan today inaugurated specialty aluminas facilities at its
refinery in Gardanne, France, which include a grinding workshop, a packaging
workshop and 12 storage silos. The inaugural event was attended by local
government, economic leaders, media and employees. "This investment will help
increase Gardanne's production for the rapidly growing global specialty
aluminas market," said Frederic Weishaar, Managing Director, Specialty
Aluminas Europe for the Bauxite and Alumina unit. "The new facilities will
enable Rio Tinto Alcan to meet the growing demand for a variety of
applications, such as liquid crystal display television screens, and to
capture new markets in both Asia and the United States. These facilities
represent just part of the (euro)20 million that has been invested in the
Gardanne site over the past two years," Weishaar continued.
"Rio Tinto Alcan is committed to minimizing harmful effects to the
environment through effective management practices," said Weishaar. "In line
with this commitment, Gardanne also invested (euro)5 million this year in a
new process; whereby, bauxite residue (a by-product of the alumina refining
process) is filtered, dewatered and transformed into Bauxaline(C), a product
with numerous commercial applications such as road embankments and
sub-grades."
Gardanne, which employs a total of 500 people, has a production capacity
of 700,000 tonnes of aluminas per year, which makes it the leading producer
in Europe and number two globally. Specialty aluminas represents 80% of
Gardanne's sales; while, 20% can be attributed to smelter-grade alumina.
About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the
UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited,
which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Rio Tinto's business
is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are
aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial
minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span
the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with
significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.
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For further information: Rio Tinto Alcan Media Relations, Paris: Chrystele Ivins, +33-1-56-28-24-18, chrystele.ivins@alcan.com; Rio Tinto Alcan Media Relations, Montreal: Bryan Tucker, +1-514-848-8151, media.relations@alcan.com; questions@riotinto.com