Global resource house BHP Billiton lifted group attributable alumina production to 1.078 million tonnes in Q3 2006 from 1.072 million in the preceding quarter (Q2) and from 1.028 million in the year-earlier period (Q3 2005).
The year-on-year rise reflects ramp-up of the expansion at the Worsley refinery in Australia from 3.25 million tpy to 3.5 million tpy and record production at the 45%-owned Paranam plant in Suriname. Paranam has overcome the early teething problems associated with the 250,000tpy expansion to 2.2 million tpy which was technically completed early last year.
Quarterly production would have been higher still were it not for calciner outages at Worsley and at the joint venture Alumar refinery in Brazil, in which BHP owns a 36% stake.
The company reported record quarterly primary metal output from continuing operations within its smelter network of 337,000t, led by the two South African smelters and Mozal in Mozambique. A slight year-on-year drop in output from 344,000t reflected the sale of its stake in the Valesul smelter to CVRD.
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