Sedgman has been awarded a A$59.8 million EPC contract as Main Integrating Contractor for the filtration plant at Alcoa of Australia Ltd’s (Alcoa) Kwinana alumina refinery in Western Australia. When complete the plant will produce lower moisture content bauxite residue from the refinery. This will permit ongoing residue storage within the existing storage area, deferring the need to construct new drying areas. Sedgman’s scope of work includes design, procurement, delivery, construction, integration and commissioning of the filtration plant and the associated process infrastructure.
Sedgman Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Peter Watson said it was exciting to be working with a blue chip client like Alcoa following a competitive tender and front end engineering design (FEED) process. “We have been working closely with Alcoa over the last few months to understand and refine the design and delivery model to meet the requirements of this project.
“Sedgman has extensive experience with the filtration process being used at Kwinana gained from our 35 year history of designing, building and operating minerals processing plants across the coal and metalliferous sectors.”
Detailed design has commenced on the project with completion scheduled for April 2016.
Kwinana refinery is located 22 km south of Perth and is part of the Kwinana Industrial area, Western Australia’s premier industrial estate. It is also part of the Fremantle outer harbour with more than 120 ships berthing at the jetty. The Kwinana jetty imports approximately 12 ships of caustic soda for use at the Kwinana and Pinjarra refineries and exports approximately 115 ships of alumina each year.
Kwinana, the first of Alcoa’s three Western Australian alumina refineries, was officially opened in July 1963. Production began three months later. The first shipment of alumina left the Kwinana port aboard the ‘Lake Sorrel’ on 22 February 1964, bound for the Point Henry aluminium smelter. In March the same year, the first export shipment was despatched to Japan.
Kwinana Refinery enjoyed spectacular growth in its first decade of operation. By 1973, the original one-unit, 200,000 t plant expanded to a six-unit, 1.5 Mt operation. Over the years, the plant has been upgraded and improved and now produces 2 Mt/y from five-units.
Although 50 years old Kwinana refinery continues to make a considerable contribution to Alcoa’s international alumina operations, and the Western Australian economy.