THE local bauxite industry, hard hit by the recent global financial crisis, is on the road to recovery.
This was disclosed on Monday by a senior official of RUSAL Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI), a major local producer. Mr. K.C.Singh of RUSAL  BCGI declared “the good news” for bauxite at a national mining and quarrying conference and exhibition being held by the Guyana  Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for its ongoing Mining Week observances.

The venue was the Convention Centre of the Ocean View International Hotel at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

He was speaking on the topic “RUSAL BCGI: an update” , during which he not only made  the optimistic forecast, but announced the company’s plans for investing heavily in equipment for intensified mining and exploration, while treating its workers “decently” and  continuing to give corporate support to the  communities  near its mines, mitigating  environmental impacts.
An upbeat Singh said that pre-global downturn price levels for alumina were close to US$3300 per metric tonne, but  during  the downturn, prices had dropped to as low as US$1,600. per tonne.

He disclosed too that during the downturn, RUSAL’s BCGI production had dropped from a high of three million tonnes per year to one million tonnes.

“During those hard days, we had moved to very expensive processing, which we are still in at the moment. We have had severe multiple handling problems which contribute to high production costs. We have had to find innovative means to keep our operations viable.”
He added: “Two years ago, it looked like if RUSAL BCGI only had days or months to go before they closed down.

“RUSAL BCGI is however happy to note that prices are now back to almost USD $3000 per metric tonnes ,” he said. “We are still here. Prices are climbing. We are not far away from reaching the highs which the industry enjoyed before the global financial crisis.”

He disclosed that RUSAL BCGI is now investing in new machinery for mining as well as equipment for increased exploration activities, with a planned production of two million metric tonnes in 2012, as against the recent production of 900,000 tonnes.

Some US $20M has been invested to date in new and additional equipment, and RUSAL plans to invest a further US$30M in 2012.
He said RUSAL BCGI is putting more money into exploration this year.
“The company has realized what exploration can do for it. For example, at West Pit in Aroaima, we started intending to mine 300,000 tonnes; but when we finished all the detailed development and exploration, we took out over five million tonnes of bauxite from that one pit. So the importance of exploration and development has struck home.”
The company, he also disclosed, was now looking at the development of its other mine at Kuruboka which has a proven reserve of over 40M tonnes.
There has already been some partial clearing and some developmental work with the intention of getting into production in 2012.
“Our objectives are to increase production, do additional investment in rolling stock, expand   the exploration  of  our geological section, making that section self-sufficient and not dependent on other sections for logistical support,” he said during an hour long presentation.
He had earlier explained that the rise of the prices of bauxite to pre-global downturn levels were being driven by production problems in Guinea, the second largest bauxite producer in the world, and the fact that China had stopped exporting alumina.
The Chinese, he explained, had   cut back on their operations of their refineries.
“The Chinese are not refining for anybody else other than themselves,” he said, adding that this was one big development that was  helping the world situation, making life better for other producers.