Bauxite
Bauxite
An aluminium ore found in deposits around the world, the red bauxite rock is crushed and refined into a white alumina powder and smelted into aluminium metal.
Our Brazil Alumina operations are made up of shares in the country’s largest bauxite mine and in an alumina refinery.
Brazil Alumina
Brazil AlumarAv. Eng. Emiliano Macieira
3507 Anjo da Guarda
São Luís MA, 65095-603
Brazil
+55 21 3094-3350
Key statistics
Our operation
Our Brazil Alumina operations are made up of shares in the country’s largest bauxite mine and in an alumina refinery.
We have a 33 per cent interest in the MRN mine and a 36 per cent share of the Alumar alumina refinery.
For more than 40 years bauxite mining has been underway at the Mineracao Rio do Norte (MRN) mine, in Porto Trombetas, in northern Brazil.
Bauxite is the raw material for aluminum and MRN’s open-cut strip mine produces 18 million tonnes (Mtpa) of bauxite a year. Our share of the ore produced at the MRN mine is supplied to the alumina refinery (capacity of 3.5 Mtpa) in Sao Luis, northeastern Brazil, which has been operating since the mid-eighties.
The alumina produced from the refinery is exported through the Alumar port and supplied to the co-located Alumar aluminium smelter.
Read more about our aluminium smelter operations in Brazil.
About Brazil Alumina
As one of the world’s largest producers of aluminium, we are involved in each stage of production, including bauxite mining, refining bauxite into alumina and smelting alumina into aluminium metal.
We have a 33 per cent interest in the MRN mine and a 36 per cent share of the Alumar alumina refinery.
MRN’s open-cut strip mine produces 18 million tonnes (Mtpa) of bauxite a year, supplying the Alumar refinery (capacity of 3.5 Mtpa). The alumina produced from the refinery is exported through the Alumar port and supplied to the co-located Alumar aluminium smelter.
Partnering with our communities
The Brazilian communities we work with have rich histories, which we are helping preserve through investments in the arts, films, music and publishing.
Our people are involved in many social and environmental projects, including the breast milk bank at the local maternity hospital, tree planting, local education and training.
Alumina
Alumina
Alumina is the key raw material used to produce primary aluminium.
Approximately 60 per cent of the production from our Worsley Alumina operation is shipped to our aluminium smelters in South Africa and Mozambique, with the remainder going into the seaborne market.
