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Guangxi May Become a National Base of Low-Cost Alumina

Bauxite in Guangxi region belongs to karst accumulative bauxite deposit, featuring rich resources and large reserve, which is mainly distributed in Baise, Congzuo, and Nanning, dominated by diaspore and a small quantity of gibbsite, and characterized by high aluminum-silicon ratio, low alkali consumption, and high leaching rate properties.

Up till now Guangxi has built four large alumina enterprises, revolving around bauxite resources in Pingguo, Jingxi, Debao, Tiandong in Baise City, it has respectively constructed four major alumina production bases including Chinalco Guangxi, Guangxi Huayin, Guangxi Xinfa, and Tiandong Jinxin. In addition, Congzuo and Longzhou areas also have rich bauxite resources, local governments are in the process of consultation with Chinalco and Jinjiang Group companies for development.

According to survey, local alumina factories all have self-owned mines, whose resource volumes in their respective possession all topped 100 million tonnes, some enterprises even have up to 200 million tonnes, enterprise production basically focuses on self-mining ore, several enterprises have a small quantity of externally purchased ore.

Guangxi bauxite resources are relatively shallow, which results in low cost of exploitation, nevertheless, as most primary ore contains a lot of mud, it needs ore washing processing, generally enterprises adopt water washing or water combined with machine washing methods, plus pulverizing and transport costs, the cost of enterprises’ self-mining ore is basically kept below 170 yuan/tonne, besides the grinding grade of ore is up to 8, compared with other regions in China, its advantages in bauxite grade and cost are obvious.

According to relevant data, designed total capacity of alumina in Guangxi region is 8.4 million tonnes, the current operation capacity is close to 7.4 million tonnes, excluding Guangxi Xinfa which has small quantity of production cut due to unsolved red mud deposit problem, other enterprises are all engaged in high-efficiency production, especially Guangxi Huayin Aluminum, its originally designed 2 million tonne capacity has been increased to nearly 2.2 million tonnes after potential-tapping and upgrading, enterprise productivity made substantial breakthrough. Whereas by relying on premium mine resources, improving and developing technologies, plus large-scale, efficient and stable production technologies, Chinalco Guangxi has accomplished lowest production cost performance among domestic alumina enterprises in Guangxi region and in China, it even recorded slight profit after the domestic alumina price dropped below historical lowest level last year.

Guangxi region enjoys evident advantage in bauxite resources, alumina production cost is generally low, the region has become low-cost alumina production base in China; nevertheless, due to limited downstream consumption, along with high transport cost for outward shipping, the alumina industry faces certain restriction, currently regional power grid in Xinshan, Baise, is under construction, it is expected to avoid high power grid wheeling charge imposed by the China Southern Power Grid, and lower electricity cost for local electrolytic aluminum factories, which will greatly benefit the development of local downstream electrolytic aluminum industry, we believe that as the regional and national reforms and policies concerning electricity power make continual progress, Guangxi region’s aluminum industrial chain advantage will keep emerging, and even become more prominent.

(End of January. 2016)

Name of commoditiesPeriodImportsExportsQuantity (metric ton)Value (thousand US dollars)% Change (2014-2015)Quantity (metric ton)Value (thousand US dollars)% Change (2014-2015)Copper:Copper concentrate (actual weight)Jan-Jan.1170373141660126.13-11.64Copper Scrap (actual weight)Jan-Jan.272988533818-10.92-36.2532108176.8125.3Blister copperJan-Jan.676803250494.77-22.74149679332.27-11.38Refined copper Jan-Jan.32387015161767.87-20.47898142166-68.67-77.91Copper alloysJan-Jan.2879123211.55-22.4817-78.97-54.11Fabricated copper productsJan-Jan.42425351907-9.64-20.9838343264466-14.04-26.17Aluminium:AluminaJan-Jan.50752813264031.76-11.73141848634219.491.22Aluminium ScrapJan-Jan.134548154358-30.01-47.232629-70.09-82.42Primary AluminiumJan-Jan.65241236025.08-4.5751658524787598Aluminium alloysJan-Jan.5705121210.45-8.734533684273-12.98-27.95Fabricated Aluminium productsJan-Jan.36255203366-18.94-22.1329984911555-13.22-19.69Lead:Lead concentrateJan-Jan.94916103503-27.48-31.58Unwrought refined leadJan-Jan.3205647148.7648.11Unwrought refined lead alloys Jan-Jan.14212510-51.96-67.64112339-29.495.54Fabricated LeadJan-Jan.48378871.96201.3111212238-72.45-74.75Zinc:Zinc concentrate (actual weight)Jan-Jan.254293119587-11.37-39.872233Unwrought refined ZincJan-Jan.5928397222150.2182.610101622-93.77-95.49Unwrought refined Zinc alloysJan-Jan.989321064-1.96-13.18459845.1916.74Fabricated ZincJan-Jan.10173706-19.51-27.1718731280067.6942.6Tin:Unwrought refined tin Jan-Jan.91913766211.24134.44Unwrought refined tin alloysJan-Jan.611232-22.17-35.33Nickel:Unwrought nickel Jan-Jan.34800315202336.65140.615586006-87.08-92.51Unwrought nickel alloysJan-Jan.2872877682.25248.25985869-57.36-71.78Fabricated nickelJan-Jan.10393679011.0811.733199162-25.1915.68

Name of commoditiesPeriodImportsExportsQuantity (metric ton)Value (thousand US dollars)% Change (2014-2015)Quantity (metric ton)Value (thousand US dollars)% Change (2014-2015)Antimony:Unwrought antimony Jan-Jan.327167934996.8329.67Antimony oxideJan-Jan.50368-48.99-64.1226221244813.14-28.04Molybdenum:Molybdenum concentrate (actual weight)Jan-Jan.10185254-35.66-58.68413237733.6-37.41Ferro-molybdenumJan-Jan.66539560185Molybdenum OxideJan-Jan.290361495.2544.13Magnesium:Unwrought magnesiumJan-Jan.23387-44.8215.57365358294811.96-0.27Magnesium turnings, particles and powderJan-Jan.490911499-43.46-46.65Tungsten:Tungsten ore concentrateJan-Jan.5082986170.6914.86114901068Tungsten oxideJan-Jan.8881488578.514.09Ammonium Paratungstate Jan-Jan.229352434.76-18.69Tungsten powderJan-Jan.752094-24.04-55.69 Tungsten carbide powderJan-Jan.226331262213.52358915326.62-28.15 Ferro-tungstenJan-Jan.1873153367.5128.5 Silver: (unit in kg) Unwrought silverJan-Jan.467064593-25.87-34.841652947617575.7237.12 Silver powderJan-Jan.126238171818.8252.71147013736.11153.63 Semi-finished silverJan-Jan.467064593-25.87-34.8412093-98.34-97.79 Silver ornamentsJan-Jan.19935173-11.3810.6324292515586.16-22.23 Silverware Jan-Jan.3837-76.89-74.949432344-52.85-44.76 Gold: (unit in kg) Gold ornamentsJan-Jan.682390627.089.716797901675-13.54-11.79 Titanium: Fabricated titaniumJan-Jan.7253610447.40.961185233839.47-21.03 Titanium concentratesJan-Jan.2167852681932.35-15.52731482-61.48-72.33 Titanium dioxideJan-Jan.1349932477-1.45-12.4552011768428-17.94 Cobalt: Cobalt and Fabricated cobaltJan-Jan.909462646-2.9613.9423375994.864.84 Cobalt concentratesJan-Jan.1300117120-42.46-66.81 Cobalt oxideJan-Jan.32382-68.65-73.289216284-1.77-22.94 Cobalt nitrateJan-Jan.1294 Cobalt carbonateJan-Jan.13132-55.4-67.742172487-5.74-26.36

Unit: metric ton

Name of metalProduction inFebruary. 2016Total outputJan.-Feb. 2016% Change2015-2016 Copper12839057.28 Aluminium4546886-7.72 Lead613187-5.16 Zinc906042-1.38 Nickel34294-10.93 Tin274172.53 Antimony31104-2.93 Mercury64487.31 Magnesium1217713.39 Titanium992125.2 Copper Concentrate2245542.65 Lead Concentrate220230-2.23 Zinc Concentrate486140-3.09 Nickel Concentrate140021.7 Tin Concentrate14772-9.03 Antimony Concentrate13857-10.13 Alumina90151242.29 Fabricated Copper Products24143708.52 Fabricated Aluminum Products804005512.65 Total China