Smallest Alumina Refinery in the World

Hi Friends,


Generally, most of us discuss about the biggest or the most efficient Alumina refinery in the World. Today, I thought of sharing my views about the smallest Alumina refinery in the World. The name of this refinery is neither listed / published in Directories of Alumina refineries of the World nor flashed by any print or electronic media.

The name of the refinery is Tan Binh Chemical Factory located in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam. This plant is owned by South Basic Chemicals Company, Government of Vietnam. The present operative capacity of the plant is about 25,000 tonnes of alumina per annum which has been expanded in stages over a period of time. This plant was set up about 70 years back from now and originally designed by a team of engineers of Taiwan. But the subsequent expansions were carried out inhouse by involved engineers of the company itself with minor support of external experts.

The company has the Bauxite mines at Bao Loc. The mined Bauxite is crushed, beneficiated and transported by road through truck and dumpers to Alumina refinery which is situated at a distance of about 200 km. The Alumina refinery has got all unit operations and unit processes except bauxite crushing. The ROM Bauxite received from mines is directly fed to the Grinding unit. This plant produces special hydrates, aluminas and other alumina chemicals.

I have visited this Alumina refinery several times and highly impressed by the knowledgeable workforce and enthusiastic management of the company for their sincere approach towards quality of product, plant efficiencies, cost control and environmental management. It's a unique plant in the World which inspires us to set up efficient green-field Alumina refinery of smaller capacities using process technology available on public domain.

Till 2005, the total Bauxite reseves in Vietnam was estimated at around 800 million tonnes. But the exploration results of 2009 has revealed that Vietnam has total Bauxite reserves of about 5600 Million tonnes (3rd position in the World with respect to Bauxite reserves after Guinea and Australia). Today, the country has Alumina refinery of smallest capacity but Bauxite reserves in the country indicates that Vietnam will also have the biggest capacity Alumina refinery in the World by year 2020.

I admire the approach of Vietnamese friends and salute them for their attitude towards industrial developement of the country with due care of environment and community around.


Regards.

Kunwar Rajendra