Lightweight metals manufacturer Alcoa is celebrating its first shipment of Western Australia bauxite as part of an export trial approved by the state government last year. Perth-based Alcoa Mining president Garret Dixon noted that the milestone shipment – a 47 000-t parcel of bauxite bound for an alumina refinery in China – supported the company’s strategy to grow its third-party bauxite business and complemented Alcoa’s mining activities, which supplied bauxite to its Western Australian alumina refineries. “Alcoa operates the world’s largest integrated bauxite and refining system here in Western Australia,” said Dixon, adding that, for over 53 years, Alcoa had established sustainable mining practices to feed the company’s three alumina refineries at Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup.
