Facts and figures

The partners signed a heads of agreement in December 2004 and the present joint venture was established in March 2006. The final approval for plant construction was given on July 19 2007. Construction activities commenced shortly after that.

The first metal will be produced in late 2009 and full production commissioned in 2010. When in operation, the plant will have approximately 1,100 employees.

Jobs generated
Construction is expected to represent more than 16,500 man-years of construction employment. Construction and subsequent operations will generate a large number of jobs among suppliers and sub-contractors in Qatar.

The project site is situated in the north-east of Mesaieed Industrial City, in the region of Umm Sa'id (Mesaieed), approximately 40 kilometers south of the capital, Doha.

Production
Primary aluminium production will take place in two long buildings each approximately 1,150 m in length, called potrooms. Each potroom will house two rows of 176 cells, giving a total of 352 cells in each potroom, and 704 cells in the first phase. Phase one production capacity of the reduction plant will be 585,000 tonnes per annum.

All of Qatalum's production will be shipped in the form of value-added, alloyed casthouse products. The extrusion ingot casthouse will have a capacity of 350,000 tonnes per year. The primary foundry alloys casthouse will have a capacity of 275,000 tonnes per year.

Power plant
The power plant will be a combined-cycle power plant with a capacity enabling the supply of 1,000 MW as required by the aluminium metal plant. Nominal total power plant capacity will be approximately 1,350 MW.

Carbon plant
The carbon plant will supply approximately 300,000 anodes tonnes per year for use in the potlines. Approximately 63,000 tonnes per year of the spent anodes will be recycled back to the carbon plant.

Port
The port will have berthing facilities to handle import and export of all raw materials and products. The port will be able to handle ships of up to 65,000 dwt.

Environmental issues
The Qatalum project will be subject to the laws of the state of Qatar and the various international and regional protocols and agreements to which the state is a party, as well as to both Hydro's and Qatar Petroleum's corporate requirements.

The project has carried out an Environmental Impact Assessment in accordance with the standards of the Supreme Council for the Environment & Natural Resources (SCENR), as well as with international standards.