China's Shenhua invests $21 bn to produce alumina from coal ash
19 Dec 2011
China's Shenhua Group, the country's largest coal producer, plans to invest $21.4 billion (135.8 billion yuan) on project to make alumina from coal ash, a waste byproduct from thermal power generation.
According to Ling Wen, deputy manager of Shenhua Group, the company plans to invest $21.4 billion in the project, located in the Jungar Coal Mining Area in Ordos, a prefecture-level city in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
Xinhua news agency reported the project includes a 6,600-MW power plant, an alumina plant and a gallium plant and all the plants will use materials recycled from coal burning.
The construction work on the project commenced yesterday.
Ministries of land resources in October selected the Jungar Coal Mine and finance to become the country's first coal mine to use recycled mineral resources.
Shenhua estimates that Ordos, which is home to one-sixth of the country's coal reserves, has the resources to produce 3 billion metric tons of alumina, a raw material used to make aluminum.