PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (INALUM) and Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) signed a feasibility study agreement related to the development of INALUM's browfileld expansion in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra.
The agreement was signed by INALUM President Director Hendi Prio Santoso and EGA Chief Executive Officer, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, at the G20 Summit in Bali, Monday (14/11).
President Director of INALUM, Hendi Prio Santoso, said that this agreement is expected to confirm that EGA is INALUM's preferred partner for the Kuala Tanjung brownfield expansion.
The consideration is based on the efficiency of EGA's smelting technology and experience transferring it internationally, as well as the company's potential partnerships as an investor and or metal offtaker.
"We see advancing to the successful conclusions of the bankable feasibility study as the next step before we begin construction," he said in a written statement. EGA is the largest non-oil and gas industry company from the United Arab Emirates.
Under this agreement, EGA has the exclusive right to license the UAE-developed technology to INALUM for brownfield aluminum smelter expansion. EGA will license DX+ Ultra smelting technology to INALUM which is the international company's latest industrial technology.
The commercial license is for the expansion of the Kuala Tanjung brownfield smelter in North Sumatra, if the project proves feasible.
EGA itself has been developing its smelting technology in the UAE for more than 30 years, and was the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally in a deal with Bahraini Aluminium in 2016.
The EGA's requirement for metal investment or retrieval is that the prioritized project uses renewable energy. The existing Kuala Tanjung aluminum smelting plant uses electricity generated by hydropower.
The expansion project is expected to have a capacity of more than 400 thousand tonnes of aluminum per year, depending on the results of a bankable feasibility study that will now be co-financed by EGA and INALUM.
"This agreement is an important step forward in our cooperation with INALUM, and brings the deployment of UAE-developed technology closer to Indonesia," said EGA Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban.
He said potential investments in the expansion of Kuala Tanjung's brownfield, and the sale of metals, would advance growth in low-carbon aluminum that would enable modern life around the world while protecting the earth for future generations.
"I thank INALUM for their continued trust in the EGA in line with the partnership between our two countries."
For your information, INALUM and EGA have worked together in increasing the potential to use EGA technology knowledge from the existing aluminum smelter in Kuala Tanjung, based on an agreement signed in 2020.
The project aims to increase production from existing reduction cells by about 20,000 tons per year or about 10 percent. Design work for the pilot part of the project has been completed.
The EGA itself has completed a series of similar improvements across its sites in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah over the past few decades.
In 2020, EGA signed an agreement with NEO Aluminio Colombia that could lead to the export of EGA technology for the development of the South American country's first aluminum production facility.
Image source: KONTAN/Baihaki/22/7/2018
