A thickner at Mt Keith, Western Australia.

Hydrometallurgy alumina

CSIRO works closely with its research partners and industry to ensure Australia's alumina industry remains competitive.

  • 11 March 2010 | Updated 24 September 2012
  1. Overview
  2. Characterisation of feedstock
  3. Silica mineral reactions
  4. Crystallisation and precipitation
  5. Impurity control and residue management
  6. Solid-liquid separation
  7. Key contacts

Overview

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We work closely with the alumina industry to identify opportunities for continuous improvement to help the industry remain internationally competitive.

The alumina industry is looking for process improvements which will allow operators to:

  • increase productivity
  • reduce energy consumption
  • improve product quality
  • minimise scale formation
  • identify efficient techniques to process lower-quality bauxites
  • decrease reagent consumption
  • improve environmental performance. Photograph of two men standing in front of an alumina refinery.

We are able to offer industry significant capability and expertise in:

  • physical, organic, surface, solid-state, polymer and analytical chemistry 
  • mineralogy and particle characterisation
  • chemical, process, and control engineering
  • physical and mathematical modelling of flows, as well as general process modelling.

Our key strength lies in our ability to combine these capabilities and expertise with fundamental physicochemical information and solve complex process problems.