About
The Atlantic Alumina Company LLC owned alumina refinery in Louisiana is the last remaining operating alumina manufacturer in the United States.
Commissioned in 1957, the Gramercy refinery began production of smelter grade alumina under Kaiser Aluminum, has been called Noranda previously and is now called Atlantic Alumina or Atalco.
Our Gramercy operations are located on the east bank of the Mississippi in Louisiana, about 45 miles west of New Orleans, with direct sea and river access. It is part of Atlantic Alumina with a dedicated mining operation in Jamaica exclusively supplying the closest bauxite to the United States.
Employing a direct workforce of approximately 550 the plant has a unique double-digestion and batch tank design which makes its smelter and chemical grade alumina some of the most efficient and desirable in the aluminum sector.
We are developing additional high purity and speciality products with diversified energy sources to provide customers lower carbon supply chains and total transparency.
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Products
Smelter Grade Alumina (SGA)
In addition to the feedstock for aluminum smelters, refractories, abrasives, ceramics and production of commodity grade P1020 aluminum metal, our SGA is particularly effective for the production of higher purity grades of aluminum as used in the aerospace, military and automotive sectors. For non-metallurgical or chemical applications, our calcined alumina trihydrate (ATH) is also referred to as C-70 calcined alumina.
Products
Bauxite Mining
Our bauxite is mined from ore bodies on the north coast of Jamaica and transported by haul trucks and railcars to our facility just above Discovery Bay. It is then partly dried and blended to ensure customer quality specifications are met before being shipped on Panamax vessels worldwide. Our bauxite has one of the lowest silica levels of bauxite globally as well as greater than 46% available alumina.
After our bauxite pits have been certified as “mined out” the area is reshaped through backfilling and topsoiling in prepared for restoration to more useful and beneficial state such as forestry, agricultural, water catchment and greenhouse clusters, with over 135 to date.
- is 51% owned by the Government of Jamaica;
- only mines 15% of its mining leases;
- plants many more trees (over 100,000 a year) than it removes; never mines in forestry or protected areas;
- pays approximately US$80,000,000 a year into Jamaica;
- provides direct and indirect employment for over 1500 Jamaicans;
- does not require any crushing or grinding of the bauxite at either the mine or the refinery.
Products
Future Products
At least 15 of the Defense Logistic Agency’s 46 strategic & critical materials are present in the refinery's wet and dry stacked tailings, including 10 of the 17 Rare Earth Elements (REE) at extractable grades.
The 5 critical minerals include: Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), Gallium (Ga), Strontium (Sr), Niobium/Columbium (Nb) and Nickel (Ni); and the REE include: Scandium (Sc), Neodymium (Nd), Dysprosium (Dy), Praseodymium (Pr), Lanthanum (La), Lutetium (Lu), Samarium ( Sm ), Erbium Er ), Gadolinium ( Gd ) and Cerium (Ce).
This gives Atalco an opportunity to be a large part of the nation’s solution to onshoring supply of these materials, critical to our national & economic defense.
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Products
Chemical Grade Alumina (CGA)
Also known as Non-Metallurgical Grade Alumina, our CGA includes a calcined product, C-70, and a wet and dry alumina trihydrate.
WH-30 Wet cake is a high purity alumina trihydrate produced by the Bayer process, with the consistency of damp beach sand.
H-30 is a high purity alumina trihydrate produced by the Bayer process and dried in a fluid bed dryer. It is a dry free flowing coarse powder.
Atalco's unique crystallization process produces a product (both H30 and WH30) recognized throughout the industry as one of the most desirable raw materials for grinding. This same process imparts properties that lead to rapid dissolution in strong acid or strong bases.
Products
Smelter Grade Alumina (SGA)
In addition to the feedstock for aluminum smelters, refractories, abrasives, ceramics and production of commodity grade P1020 aluminum metal, our SGA is particularly effective for the production of higher purity grades of aluminum as used in the aerospace, military and automotive sectors. For non-metallurgical or chemical applications, our calcined alumina trihydrate (ATH) is also referred to as C-70 calcined alumina.
Products
Bauxite Mining
Our bauxite is mined from ore bodies on the north coast of Jamaica and transported by haul trucks and railcars to our facility just above Discovery Bay. It is then partly dried and blended to ensure customer quality specifications are met before being shipped on Panamax vessels worldwide. Our bauxite has one of the lowest silica levels of bauxite globally as well as greater than 46% available alumina.
After our bauxite pits have been certified as “mined out” the area is reshaped through backfilling and topsoiling in prepared for restoration to more useful and beneficial state such as forestry, agricultural, water catchment and greenhouse clusters, with over 135 to date.
- is 51% owned by the Government of Jamaica;
- only mines 15% of its mining leases;
- plants many more trees (over 100,000 a year) than it removes; never mines in forestry or protected areas;
- pays approximately US$80,000,000 a year into Jamaica;
- provides direct and indirect employment for over 1500 Jamaicans;
- does not require any crushing or grinding of the bauxite at either the mine or the refinery.
Products
Future Products
At least 15 of the Defense Logistic Agency’s 46 strategic & critical materials are present in the refinery's wet and dry stacked tailings, including 10 of the 17 Rare Earth Elements (REE) at extractable grades.
The 5 critical minerals include: Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), Gallium (Ga), Strontium (Sr), Niobium/Columbium (Nb) and Nickel (Ni); and the REE include: Scandium (Sc), Neodymium (Nd), Dysprosium (Dy), Praseodymium (Pr), Lanthanum (La), Lutetium (Lu), Samarium ( Sm ), Erbium Er ), Gadolinium ( Gd ) and Cerium (Ce).
This gives Atalco an opportunity to be a large part of the nation’s solution to onshoring supply of these materials, critical to our national & economic defense.
In addition to the 30,000,000 metric tonnes already on site, the refinery continues to generate approximately 1,000,000 metric tonnes per year of mineral rich residue.
Products
Chemical Grade Alumina (CGA)
Also known as Non-Metallurgical Grade Alumina, our CGA includes a calcined product, C-70, and a wet and dry alumina trihydrate.
WH-30 Wet cake is a high purity alumina trihydrate produced by the Bayer process, with the consistency of damp beach sand.
H-30 is a high purity alumina trihydrate produced by the Bayer process and dried in a fluid bed dryer. It is a dry free flowing coarse powder.
Atalco's unique crystallization process produces a product (both H30 and WH30) recognized throughout the industry as one of the most desirable raw materials for grinding. This same process imparts properties that lead to rapid dissolution in strong acid or strong bases.
Facility
A few facts about our facilities.
Production Capabilities
The Refinery has the capability to produce 100,000 metric tonnes of alumina a month
Produced Products
Atalco produces products such as the flame retardant coatings in your house, the aluminum in your car and the chemicals that purify your water
We Own
Atlantic Alumina owns the closest bauxite to the United States in Jamaica with the capacity to mine and export 5.2 million metric tonnes per year
Refinery Employees
The Refinery employs 50% minority employees with over 70% of its members in the United Steelworkers Union
Carbon Emissions
Atalco's carbon emissions are in the second quartile in the global alumina industry and is powered by natural gas
Mineral Site
Atlantic Alumina is a critical mineral site inside the United States with over 30,000,000 metric tonnes of 'recyclable' critical minerals currently supplied by China and Russia
Process
Gramercy Facility
The Gramercy facility processes bauxite into alumina using the well established Bayer process patented in 1887. It is self-sufficient in power (>50MW), steam and compressed air production powered by clean American natural gas, and is served by three separate gas pipelines. It is designated critical national infrastructure during wind or flood events and has never been cut off to date.
It is located on 3,300 acres between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and, in addition to its deep sea dock and separate barge dock on the river, is serviced by 2 railroads and the I-10 highway. Finished products can be loaded on site via truck, rail and barge, with mid-stream loading capability for vessels.
The refinery uses water from both the river and wells with its own on site water treatment plant. The refinery was redesigned and rebuilt in 2000 to incorporate double-digestion at high temperature and is chemically capable of digesting all bauxite qualities.
The batch tank design in its precipitation section provides unique holding time enabling production of an extremely low iron and zinc product with enhanced micro-grindability. The plant uses 3 rotary kilns for calcined products and has two dry hydrate dryers and additional wetcake filters.
Safety, Emergency and Community
The Refinery continues to expand
its residue pressing capacity and
will be 100% dry stacking its residue by Q2 2024.
Atalco continues to build on a long and strong history of social responsibility and support for youth education both in Jamaica and the US. This includes its $8mm programme of financial grants and bursaries to 80 students attending tertiary institutions and awards to 62 top-performing primary pupils.
In Jamaica it has awarded over 700 grants worth $25,000 each to the top primary GSAT students among primary schools in the company’s operating area over the last 10 years. It has also provided over 1,200 education bursaries over the last 15 years, valued at $50,000 each, on average, to students entering tertiary institutions.
Education bursaries over the last 15 years
Low Carbon
The Gramercy refinery is in the second quartile for greenhouse gas carbon emissions in the global alumina sector.
At 0.74 tCO2e per dmt of alumina produced, it is classed as ‘green’ according to CarbonChain methodology where the industry average is 1.29 tCO2e per dmt of alumina produced.
Gramercy is seeking to build on-site solar farms at both sites with c.5 MW capacity in Jamaica and up to 60-80MW in Louisiana, potentially becoming a net renewable power provider to Energy.
Atalco is working closely with CarbonChain to calculate the impact of switching power sourced from the grid to solar on the average CO2 emissions per dmt of alumina produced.
Discovery’s project “Operation Discovery Tree” launched in December 2021 has planted 96,200 trees to date in Jamaica (vs 200,000 target), directly contributing to carbon sequestration.
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News
Atalco meets the criteria for the Inflation Reduction Act
Section 45X(c)(6) of the recently announced Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) in the US provides a list of 50 minerals that when converted or purified to specified purities are considered an “applicable critical mineral” for purposes of the 45X advanced manufacturing credit, which includes aluminum.