Gladstone will be home to the world’s largest high purity alumina refinery after Alpha HPA confirmed its investment today.
The Australian-based aluminium producer has announced it would take a Final Investment Decision (FID) on Stage Two of the HPA First Project in the central Queensland town.
Alpha HPA’s Managing Director Rimas Kairaitis said the Stage Two FID followed an extensive three-year product marketing campaign to over 200 end users and the successful construction, commissioning and 16 months of operation of Stage One.
Mr Kairaitis said there was also a comprehensive re-design and re-engineering of the Stage Two facility to capture process refinements, expanded product range capability and key customer requirements, with the end result to be “the world’s largest single site high purity alumina products refinery”.
“The company will now immediately commence project execution for the full-scale, Stage Two facility, having already advanced several key elements of the project’s implementation.
“Construction of the 10-hectare, state-of-the-art, full-scale facility will commence mid-2024, on the existing HPA First Project site at Yarwun, near Gladstone, where the company’s Stage One facility is already in small-scale production of its high purity aluminas and aluminium materials product range,” Mr Kairaitis said.
He said Stage Two would mean full-scale production of up to 10,000 tonnes of high-purity aluminium materials per year creating 120 ongoing local jobs on top of 300 jobs during construction.
“The feasibility study and financing represent a comprehensive endorsement of the Company’s technology and business strategy and allows for Alpha HPA to establish Australia’s first, large scale commercial capability to manufacture high purity aluminas and related products to support key high technology growth sectors and the global energy transition.”
