Comalco Ltd is six months ahead of schedule with the $1 billion expansion of its Boyne Island aluminium smelter in Queensland and expects to boost production from 115,000 tonnes to 230,000 tonnes by the end of 1997.

Aluminium production from Comalco's three smelters in Australasia is now expected to increase by 50 per cent to slightly more than 650,000 tonnes in the next six months, with Boyne Island emerging as the fourth-largest smelter in the world.