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Montreal-based alumina start-upExploration Orbite VSPA Inc. is in early discussions with aluminumsmelters across the globe as it looks to sign supply deals ahead of its2013 commercial ramp-up, the company’s top executive said.
"We are in active conversations with quite a fewaluminum companies around the planet," Orbite president and chiefexecutive officer Richard Boudreault told AMM. "We have one representative from each continent except the big frozen one."
The company originally expected to supply primarilysmelters in Quebec, Iceland and northern Europe, but interest has sinceemerged from buyers in other hemispheres as well, he said Wednesday.
"We did not expect this mass of people. We expectedone or two to start talking, but not having this intensity ofconversation at this point. So we’re quite happy about that," Boudreaultsaid.
Orbite, which produced its first alumina from a pilotfacility in Cap-Chat, Quebec, in February, is planning to build aseparate metallurgical alumina plant that is slated to come online in2013 (AMM, Feb. 28). The plant is expected to produce 1,750tonnes of alumina a day, as well as smaller quantities of rare earthoxides, from aluminous clay rather than traditional bauxite (AMM, April 18).
Orbite announced Wednesday that it had successfullycompleted tests to verify the quality of the metallurgical aluminaproduced using the patented refining process, having smelted the aluminainto aluminum at the National Institute of Scientific Research.
"The tests confirmed that the alumina produced byOrbite has a similar behavior into a molten salt reduction cell as theconventional alumina used by most of the aluminum smelters around theworld," the Quebec institute’s Lionel Roué, who oversaw the testing,said in a statement.
"We’re ecstatic," Boudreault said. "It proves the alpha to omega of the thing."
Later this year, the company will test an even largervolume of alumina by smelting it into aluminum at Aluminerie Alouette’ssmelter in Sept-Îles, Quebec. "Alouette (requires for testing) a verylarge quantity, and we have to produce for a full month (to make) thatmaterial. We will produce that later on in the year," Boudreault said."We will do that as part of our commitment to demonstrate large-quantityproduction, probably in mid-summer."
While the pilot plant is making somemetallurgical-grade alumina for testing this year, once the separatemetallurgical plant is opened in 2013 the pilot facility will be used toproduce high-purity alumina for end-uses like fiber optics and LED(light-emitting diode) lamps.
The pilot plant has just completed a minor retoolingto transform it from a semi-continuous process to a continuous process,which "provides us with a lot of backups and also allows us to useeconomies of scale," Boudreault said.
Following the announcement that the tests had verified the quality ofOrbite’s alumina, the company’s share price jumped on the Toronto StockExchange, hitting an intraday high of Canadian $4.32 ($4.42) apieceWednesday, an 18.4-percent spike from Tuesday’s close at C$3.65. |
