SHANGHAI, Mar. 12 (SMM) -- The Overseas Regulatory Announcement released by Aluminum Corporation of China (CHALCO) on March 9 showed that the company passed the proposal for non-public issuance of A-shares. CHALCO said the share issue would raise up to RMB 8 billion, and the money after removing issuance costs would be used to fund the Xing County alumina project and Zhongzhou Branch’s ore-dressing Bayer process expansion construction project and serve as working capital. CHALCO’s annual alumina capacity will increase by 1.5 million mt after the construction of two projects is completed. 

Sources report that Xing County alumina project requires RMB 5.23 billion, and RMB 4.7 billion raised from the share placement will be invested in the project, while Zhongzhou Branch’s ore-dressing Bayer process expansion construction project requires RMB 2.992 billion, and RMB 1.3 billion raised from the share placement will be invested in the project.

Xing County alumina project is located in Lüliang City, Shaanxi Province, and the project uses Bayer process and represents annual metallurgical grade alumina capacity of 800,000 mt. The project includes Bayer process production system, self-owned thermal power plant with installed capacity of 50,000 kilowatts, and other auxiliary facilities. Meanwhile, one bauxite mine with capacity of 990,000 mt/yr will also be constructed, with the construction period expected to be 2 years.

Zhongzhou Branch’s ore-dressing Bayer process expansion construction project represents annual capacity of 700,000 mt, and the construction period is expected to be 2 years. 50% of expanded capacity will come online in 2013, and Zhongzhou Branch will have 1 million mt/yr sinter-process alumina capacity and 1.3 million mt/yr Bayer-process alumina capacity after the construction of the whole project is completed.