SHANGHAI, Feb. 14 (SMM) -- The Inner Mongolian provincial government announced last Thursday that an alumina extraction project initiated by Datang International Power Generation Company and Tsinghua University was now in operation. This project has a total extraction capacity of 200 kt/yr and also includes technology for extracting alumina from fly ash.

According to Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission, approximately 100 million mt of aluminum-rich coal resources are available for extraction in Inner Mongolia each year, which can produce 12 million mt of alumina after contraction.

According to the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission and based on an estimated 50 billion mt of aluminum-containing coal resources in the region, the potential reserves of aluminum-rich fly ash could be as high as 15 billion mt, equivalent to eight times the current known reserves of bauxite.

The Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission also stated that if the technology to extract alumina from fly ash is successful, China may have no need in the future to import bauxite or alumina.

China's imports of bauxite in 2010 were 30.1 million mt, up 53% YoY.

SMM believes that alumina extracted from fly ash can replace bauxite, despite the limited production scale at present. However, production issues are limiting its development in the short term, despite the availability of reserves. 

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