Bauxite and alumina: : Year in Review 2015

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 579, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Enero)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Two years ago, Indonesia imposed restrictions on exports of unprocessed bauxite in an effort to force companies to develop smelters that would make the country self-sufficient and create jobs. However, many firms including bauxite miners, said building smelters was unfeasible in the absence of supporting infrastructure and export revenue and the country's income from mining dropped in 2015, according to media reports. Meanwhile, issues with production and irregularities in export practices from the world's most important refractory bauxite mining region, China's Shanxi province, are continuing to warp the supply chain, although weak demand conditions staved off any impact on prices.

    Indonesia's ban on bauxite exports, implemented in January 2014, failed to have an impact on non-metallurgical (non-met) bauxite in 2015. There were some concerns that the embargo on unbeneficiated ore would curb availability of non-met bauxite grades from China, because of China's reliance on Indonesian bauxite for domestic alumina production.

    One of the notable highlights of the non-met bauxite market in the last five years has been its use in ceramic proppants for fracking. However, the drop in oil prices from over $115 a barrel in June 2014 to $45 at the end of November 2015 has had a sharp impact on ceramic proppant consumption, around half of which is used in North America. According to [Jess Roberts], the use of calcined bauxite in proppant production grew by more than 35% between 2011 and 2015 and proppants now represent the second largest market for non-met bauxite. Most ceramic proppant production based on a bauxite feedstock occurs in China (North American output is primarily kaolin-based).