SINGAPORE, Aug. 5 -- China's Kaiman Aluminum, previously known as Coalmine Aluminum, started up its new 350,000 mt/year 99.7% grade primary aluminium smelter in August, a company source said Wednesday.

"We just started up the plant and are testing the machinery now," the source said. "We are only operating partially at the moment and have not set any specific deadlines for when we can fully ramp up capacity or how much we aim to produce this year."

The new smelter marks the company's debut into aluminium metal production. It produced only alumina earlier.

"This is our first smelter so we will take our time to ensure everything works out smoothly," the source said.

Kaiman has the capacity to produce up to 1.8 million mt/year of alumina, of which about 1.2 million mt are smelter grade, and the rest alumina trihydrate.

"We will be able to feed our new smelter operations with our own alumina when in full production," the source said.