Emirates Global Aluminium (Ega) has reached a major milestone in the construction of its Dh11-billion ($3 billion) Al Taweelah alumina refinery with 60 per cent completion of the calciners section of the project.

The refinery is currently one of the largest industrial construction sites in the UAE, with 5,900 people working on site. Peak construction manpower is expected to be more than 10,000.

The construction of the refinery is progressing well with 37 per cent of the project already completed. It is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2018, said Ega. The plant, which is set to be a critical part of the UAE’s growing aluminium industry, will refine bauxite ore into alumina, the feedstock for aluminium smelters.

Once operational, it will be capable of producing two million tonnes per year of alumina, some three-quarters of the alumina needs of the Al Taweelah smelter.

It is located next to Ega’s Al Taweelah smelter, one of the largest single-site aluminium smelters in the world, in the Khalifa Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi (Kizad).

The refinery is only the second to be built anywhere in the Middle East, and sees the UAE expanding upstream in the aluminium value chain.