Energy Saving Aluminum in Saudi Arabia?

May 1, 2007 – Vol.12 No.6

ENERGY SAVING ALUMINUM IN SAUDI ARABIA?

Here’s a title of a press release that caught my eye: Alcan and Ma'aden Sign Heads of Agreement for Proposed US$7 Billion "Mine-to-Metal" Joint Venture; Fully Integrated Project to Include Bauxite Mine, Alumina Refinery, Power Plant and Aluminum Smelter in Saudi Arabia

What’s this, Saudi Arabia has bauxite? There’s aluminum in the ground over there? I thought Saudi Arabia has only sand, sun and oil.

Aside from the $7 billion investment this is huge. The country has already built a large petrochemical industry to make better use of its dwindling oil than selling it as fuel. Now it will use its low cost oil or natural gas to generate power to smelt aluminum. What a great idea! Aluminum is useful stuff. Used in vehicles it can save energy. At the end of life, in durable goods or in fleeting goods like beer cans, it’s easily recycled with little energy. It’s an excellent storage media for energy as well.

Further, beyond using petroleum reserves for a better purpose, the Alcan/ Ma’aden venture should create some jobs. Saudi Arabia needs all the jobs it can get. The unemployment rate there is 13 -25 percent. With 60 percent of its population under the age of 18 - and half of those hormone-driven males - the country had better find futures for them soon. Idle minds in youthful bodies can lead to anger and mayhem. We’ve seen that already. It’s one of the underlying causes of terrorism.

The US, and the world for that matter, needs more energy efficient vehicles to help curb global warming. Lighter vehicles will help. Every 10 percent weight reduction yields an 8 percent savings in fuel. Automakers, with a little help from government, should ask the Saudis to supply as many weight-saving vehicular components as automotive engineers can design into vehicles.

Don’t ship aluminum billets and ingots, ship weight-saving aluminum parts, that’s what needs to be negotiated. Making parts makes more jobs than just making chunks of primary aluminum. They really need jobs and they really need to make the best long term use of remaining oil reserves or there’s trouble ahead for the country, perhaps all of us.

The Alcan and Ma'aden project is a big one. It includes a 1400 megawatt power plant. The bauxite mine in northern Saudi Arabia has enough ore to last thirty years. The alumina refinery will have a capacity of 1,600 thousand tons per year, the smelter a capacity of 720 thousand tons per year. When operational in 2011, the facility will make use of the country’s already good port facilities. Visit Alcan at http://www.alcan.com/