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“In turn this has affected our power costs because they escalate in line with spot prices. So we're now investigating long term solutions to the issue, which may include supplementing the hydro power with a coal fired power station and wind power.”

Walsh has been actively involved in driving the reduction of GHG emissions from the Aluminium group's various sites. “We are conscious that many of the solutions to climate change rest in technology development. At Bell Bay we are testing a new Rio Tinto-developed technology – the drained cathode cell – that could cut our power use by 15 per cent and reduce GHG emissions by a similar amount,“ says Walsh. “We're also liaising closely with our colleagues in the Energy group, who are looking at coal gasification and sequestration.”

And of course, despite the high energy component that goes into its manufacture, aluminium is actually moving towards an overall GHG-positive contribution when looked at over its full life cycle. Its lightness and strength are making the metal increasingly attractive to the automobile and aviation industries, where every kilogram saved means less fuel consumed and so less carbon dioxide emitted. Also, aluminium is easily recyclable – and the recycling process uses only five per cent of the power that's needed to refine the virgin metal from alumina.

Rio Tinto Aluminium's bauxite supply comes from its giant Weipa open pit mine in the far north Cape York peninsula of Queensland. There, a US$150m expansion is now nearing completion and this will boost the mine's output to 16.5 million tonnes a year and allow Weipa to process a different quality of bauxite. The increased production will meet the demands of the new Comalco Alumina Refinery and Queensland Alumina at Gladstone, and Eurallumina in Sardinia in Italy.

“Weipa is in a very remote part of Australia up in the northern cape,” says Walsh. “You're 700km from the nearest major town – Cairns – and the connection is a dirt road that's impassable in the wet season. So at that time of the year all the construction equipment and materials have to be barged in by sea.”



“In turn this has affected our power costs because they escalate in line with spot prices. So we're now investigating long term solutions to the issue, which may include supplementing the hydro power with a coal fired power station and wind power.” Walsh has been actively involved in driving the reduction of GHG emissions from the Aluminium group's various sites. “We are conscious that many of the solutions to climate change rest in technology development. At Bell Bay we are testing a new Rio Tinto-developed technology – the drained cathode cell – that could cut our power use by 15 per cent and reduce GHG emissions by a similar amount,“ says Walsh. “We're also liaising closely with our colleagues in the Energy group, who are looking at coal gasification and sequestration.” And of course, despite the high energy component that goes into its manufacture, aluminium is actually moving towards an overall GHG-positive contribution when looked at over its full life cycle. Its lightness and strength are making the metal increasingly attractive to the automobile and aviation industries, where every kilogram saved means less fuel consumed and so less carbon dioxide emitted. Also, aluminium is easily recyclable – and the recycling process uses only five per cent of the power that's needed to refine the virgin metal from alumina. Rio Tinto Aluminium's bauxite supply comes from its giant Weipa open pit mine in the far north Cape York peninsula of Queensland. There, a US$150m expansion is now nearing completion and this will boost the mine's output to 16.5 million tonnes a year and allow Weipa to process a different quality of bauxite. The increased production will meet the demands of the new Comalco Alumina Refinery and Queensland Alumina at Gladstone, and Eurallumina in Sardinia in Italy. “Weipa is in a very remote part of Australia up in the northern cape,” says Walsh. “You're 700km from the nearest major town – Cairns – and the connection is a dirt road that's impassable in the wet season. So at that time of the year all the construction equipment and materials have to be barged in by sea.”
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer