GAC getting closer to first ore shipment

GACs first bauxite train left the companys mine on 15 January en route to the companys stockpile and facilities located in the port of Kamsar.

GAC getting closer to first ore shipment

FIRST BAUXITE ORE TRAIN LEAVES THE MINE

Tinguilinta, 21 January 2019 --- GAC’s first bauxite train left the company’s mine on 15 January en route to the company’s stockpile and facilities located in the port of Kamsar. The 80-wagon train, carrying 6,800 tons of high-grade bauxite ore, took just under three hours to cover the 90 km journey from the mine to GAC’s platform in Kamsar.

About 5000 wagons worth of high-grade bauxite ore will be employed to build the base-layer of the Kamsar platform stockyard. All will be unloaded by bucket excavators. However, once the two-wagon Car Dumper is operational, the wagons will be unloaded in a continuous manner, which will make the process faster and extremely efficient.

 “This first train is a milestone that we have been working towards for some time and we are quite proud of it,” said GAC’s Mine Production Manager, Moussa Fina Mara. “The fact that we have been able to do so safely and ahead of schedule further paves the way for successful first-ore-on-ship scheduled for the second half of this year. This milestone is the result of many thousands of hours of planning and teamwork involving different engineering disciplines from surveying through to pin-point accurate drilling, and platform-stockyard building, as well as rail construction-and-commissioning.” 

André Henry, GAC’s Senior Manager for rail interface added: “This is a great achievement and the result of fantastic teamwork. The most important challenge was worker familiarisation, to enable them to work with new technology that has never been seen in this country before, this includes a state-of-the-art train braking system. Furthermore, since there is not a ‘railway culture’ here in Guinea, we have had to educate new employees that rail travel is different to that associated with road vehicles.” 

About GAC

 Guinea Alumina Corporation S.A. (GAC) is a Guinean bauxite mining company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the largest aluminium companies in the world.

EGA is equally owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and Investment Corporation of Dubai. It operates aluminium smelters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and produced 2.6 million tonnes of aluminium in 2017. The production of EGA makes the United Arab Emirates the fifth largest country in the world for aluminium production.

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