May
Alcoa amends bid for Alumina to suit China’s CITIC
Alcoa has already secured the support of Alumina’s biggest Australian shareholder, Allan Gray, but No.2 shareholder CITIC remains elusive.
- Elouise Fowler
April
Alcoa vows to ‘listen better’ as it closes in on Alumina
Alcoa boss Bill Oplinger says permitting delays in Western Australia showed the US company needed to listen better, as he prepares to spend $4.6 billion buying more Australian assets.
- Peter Ker
February
Alumina may need to raise capital if Alcoa deal fails
The takeover target slumped after it disclosed a $US150 million ($229 million) annual loss and Alcoa shares tumbled in New York.
- Peter Ker
Alcoa in $3.3b bid for Australian partner Alumina
The deal would bring a global portfolio of bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminium smelters under one roof.
- Updated
- Peter Ker
Alcoa’s mega deal is ’20 years too late’ | Buffett’s still got it | The menace of absurd job titles
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why this mega deal is 20 years too late
Alcoa has been tipped to take out joint venture partner Alumina for two decades. Here’s why the $3 billion deal has finally happened.
- James Thomson
January
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Mining tearaway went all in on battery metals, now there is no turning back
One Australian miner tells the story of the nickel and lithium routs better than most. Now it is clinging on for dear life.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Updated
- Critical minerals
Albemarle, BHP hit by collapse in battery mineral prices
The collapse in prices for battery minerals has forced the US lithium giant to cut a West Australian project. BHP warned its nickel division would not be immune.
- Updated
- Peter Ker and Tom Rabe
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
It’s not all boom in Australian mining – look at Panoramic, Alumina
Iron ore miners are creaming it, but they cannot paper over pressures on others. Mining is a boom and bust game, and it is hard to have one without the other.
- Updated
- Anthony Macdonald
August 2023
Bauxite miner hits out at West Australia’s permitting delays
Alumina boss Mike Ferraro is happy for WA environment regulators to better scrutinise bauxite mining in the state, but he “can’t live with” delays.
- Peter Ker
May 2023
Energy policy threatening manufacturers, warns aluminium giant
Alumina chairman Peter Day says energy and climate policy in Australia is not doing enough on storage, and nor does it appreciate the importance of gas.
- Peter Ker
Emissions plan could create ‘perverse outcomes’ for coal miners
Underground mines and coking-coal producers would struggle if Labor forces them to compete against the average emissions of open-pit and thermal-coal mines.
- Peter Ker
March 2023
Jobs in doubt as Alcoa makes a rod for its back
Alcoa is unsure whether staff numbers at the Portland smelter will need to be cut on the back of a technical problem that cut production capacity to 75 per cent.
- Peter Ker
Rio Tinto wants special treatment for aluminium emissions
Rio Tinto has signalled Labor’s spending on decarbonisation is inadequate, saying a tenfold increase to $6b is needed to save unionised aluminium smelters.
- Jacob Greber and Peter Ker
Alumina boss at odds with miners over ‘unfair’ emissions limits
Aluminium industry titan Mike Ferraro said the Albanese government’s emissions policy should reward low carbon industrials, but miners are cautious about limits set by “industry average”.
- Peter Ker
February 2023
BHP sees Chinese economic ‘green shoots’ stoking demand
Australian miners like BHP and Alumina Limited have been buoyed by strong demand signals in China.
- Peter Ker
Where the great mining boom will end
While minerals will remain in demand for decades, investors will need to be careful about which ones they back.
- Stewart Oldfield
WA warns Alcoa over threat to drinking water
A cloud hangs of US aluminium giant Alcoa’s plans to continue mining bauxite in native forest near dams after WA government experts raised alarm over the threat to drinking water.
- Brad Thompson
January 2023
Alumina stock slumps 6pc on inflation and low demand
Higher energy and input costs drove a 39 per cent surge in the cost of making alumina, but Mike Ferraro is bullish on China reopening.
- Elouise Fowler
November 2022
A carbon fix for alumina refining exists, but it’s a long way off
Three per cent of Australia’s total emissions could be eradicated if the alumina refining industry adopted just four technologies. But it won’t happen fast.
- Peter Ker