Our role in the aluminium value chain

Bauxite is named after the town of Les Baux-en-Provence in France, which is where the geologist Pierre Berthier first identified the mineral in 1821.

Aluminium is the third most abundant metal found in the Earth’s crust but it is never found free in nature. It has always reacted with other elements to form compounds such as aluminium oxides.

Deposits of bauxite tend to be found in tropical areas where it is formed through the weathering of aluminium-rich rocks over millions of years. The largest concentration of high quality bauxite is found in the north-west of the Republic of Guinea.

Guinea Alumina Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium, the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer. EGA has operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium.

Although some of our bauxite is exported to the United Arab Emirates, most of our ore is sold by EGA to other companies. GAC’s production makes EGA one of the largest third-party suppliers of bauxite in the world.

GAC’s bauxite has one of the highest ratios of alumina to silica, as well as relatively low boehmite. These properties make it suitable for processing in a wide range of refinery operating conditions, from low to high temperatures as well as double-digestion refineries at comparably low operating costs.