Qatalum

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Qatalum is 50-50 joint venture Aluminum smelter Project between Qatar Petroleum and Norsk Hydro. It will be the largest aluminum plant ever launched. It is located in Mesaieed, Qatar. It will have a capacity in the first phase of 585,000 tonnes of primary aluminum, all to be shipped as value added aluminum casthouse products. A 1350 MW natural gas power plant will also be built to ensure a stable supply of electricity. The project was officially launched 12 April 2010, in Qatar by the Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway. Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore Bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery. This is an electrolytic process, so an aluminium smelter uses prodigious amounts of electricity; they tend to be located very close to large power stations, often hydro-electric ones, and near ports since almost all of them use imported alumina.