Rio Tinto has reached another milestone in the development of its Amrun project in Queensland, Australia, shipping its first bauxite cargo six weeks ahead of schedule, the company announced on Monday December 3.
Rio Tinto estimated the shipment of over 80,000 tonnes of bauxite will arrive at the company's Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone next week.The US$1.9 billion-invested Amrun project was planned to replace production from Rio Tinto's depleting East Weipa mine and increase the company's annual bauxite exports to around 10 million tonnes. The company initially expected the Amrun project to be concluded in 2019 and reach its annual production capacity of 22.8 million tonnes by then,...