Aluminerie Alouette is an

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

manufacturing company based in Sept-Îles,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, on the North Shore of the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

. With the successful start-up of a major expansion in 2005, the Alouette Aluminum Smelter, at 550,000 metric tonnes capacity per year, became the largest primary aluminum smelter in the Americas. The construction of an aluminum smelter at Sept-Îles was made possible with the completion of the

Churchill Falls Churchill Falls is a high waterfall on the Churchill River in Labrador, Canada. Formerly counted among the most impressive natural features of Canada, the diversion of the river for the Churchill Falls Generating Station has cut off almost ...

Hydro Electric project in Labrador in 1972. Electrical transmission lines from Churchill Falls, carrying power to the

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by the ...

power grid, pass close to the city of Sept-Îles, with Hydro-Québec's Arnaud substation built on the outskirts of the city. In 1989, attracted by Hydro-Québec's low power costs and the seaport facilities at Sept-Îles, Alouette built a 215,000 tonne per year smelter on

Pointe-Noire, Quebec Pointe-Noire is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of Quebec. It is within the city of Sept-Îles in the Sept-Rivières regional county municipality and the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec. It is a shipping port and a ter ...

, located on the southern side of Sept-Îles Bay. The smelter was funded by an international consortium, consisting of Austria Metall AG (AMAG), Kobe Aluminum and

Marubeni (, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a ''sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a st ...

of Japan,

Koninklijke Hoogovens Koninklijke Hoogovens known as Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS) until 1996 or informally Hoogovens. was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918. Since 2010, the plant is named Tata Steel IJmuiden. The IJmuiden steelwor ...

of the Netherlands,

Société générale de financement Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

(SGF), and VAW of Germany. In 2002, plans were approved to expand the smelter by more than double its original capacity. This phase 2 project was completed in September 2005. Since 2011, the Alouette Smelter uses 930 MW electricity at maximum production capacity. Aluminerie Alouette is certified ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 17025 (laboratory quality and environmental analysis), ISO 14001 (environment) and OHSAS 18001 (health and safety).

Current investors

* AMAG Austria Metall AG (Austria, 20%) * Hydro Aluminium (Norway, 20%) *

Investissement Québec Investissement Québec is a company established in 1998 under an act passed by the National Assembly of Quebec to favour investment in Quebec by Quebec-based and international companies. Its registered office is located in Quebec City. In December 2 ...

(Canada, 6.67%) * Marubeni Metals & Minerals (Japan, 13.33%) * Rio Tinto Alcan (Canada, 40%)

References

External links

Aluminerie Alouette website
Aluminium companies of Canada Aluminium smelters Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Norsk Hydro Sept-Îles, Quebec {{industry-corp-stub Manufacturing companies based in Quebec