Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter
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The Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter is situated on the coast of north-east England approx 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Lynemouth. The smelter is owned by a Canadian company called Alcan (now Rio Tinto Alcan) and was opened in 1974 at a cost of £54 million. GKN Foundations was paid £100,000 for the patent-driven cast-in-place piles at the construction site for the smelter.[1]
The Ordnance Survey grid reference is NZ 294 898.
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[edit] Factors determining the smelter's site
The site for the smelter was chosen because of a variety of factors. The first was electric power to smelt the aluminium. One tonne of aluminium requires the same amount of electricity as the average family uses in 20 years.[2] Because of this, cheap power was needed and less than 200 metres from the smelter is Lynemouth Power Station. The station's site was due to the coal mines nearby, which were also the fundamental reason for the nearby village's creation.[2] The power station has a 390 MW capacity to meet all the load requirements of the smelter.[3]
Another factor was labour. Many coal mines in the area had shut down and as a due result, thousands of people were left unemployed. Aluminium smelter is very labour intensive and hard work and the unemployed in the area were used to heavy work. The British government also granted £28 million to the company to help reduce unemployment in the area.[2]
Transport was a major factor as bauxite could not be found in the United Kingdom but in places such as Jamaica and Australia.[2] The smelter's location had to be near a port with a good transport link to the smelter. The town of Blyth, which is 4 miles (Template:Convert/6.4 km) south of the smelter, has a harbour which receives many commercial boats regularly. There was also a railway link from the port going directly to the power station. The railway was split at one point and connected to the smelter. Repair workers could easily be transferred to the smelter via a road link.[2]
In the process of aluminium smelting, water is needed for the cooling process. A good supply of clean water was needed. The smelter, fortunately, was situated less than 250 metres from a clear water lake. The water was connected to the smelter and is pumped regularly.
[edit] Facts
The smelter has two of the most efficient ring burners in the world (costing around £17 million).
It is the only aluminium smelting site in Europe which rebuilds the smelter whilst still in production. It is a 100 day process which takes place 7 years.
The site is provided with alumina by two trains a day from Blyth, each consisting of 21 carriges. The alumina is shiped to Blyth from Limerick in the midwest of the Republic of Ireland.
Coke is shiped to Blyth from Louisiana in the U.S. and is transported to the smelter by HGVs. There are two lines of pots, each containing 88 pots.
[edit] Worries
The nearby villages were worried about the fate of the smelter if the only remaining coal mine closed and in late 2001, it did. However, instead of closing, the smelter still remains and imports its coal from overseas or from mines in other parts of the country. When work first started on the site, local farmers were worried that pollution from the smelter would ruin their crops and harm their live stock so Alcan bought the land off them, Alcan now owns 4.5 thousand acres of land in the local area, employs a farming director and the land is used to grow crops and raise live stock, proving the farmers wrong.
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