Augean Industrial Services Team Onsite at Rio Tinto Alcan
In March 2012 Rio Tinto Alcan announced the closure of its Lynemouth smelter. The business turned its attention immediately to safely decommissioning the plant, and engaged Augean’s Industrial Services Team to handle the decontamination and removal of aluminium oxide from the plant, in preparation for demolition.
This vast site employed 515 people at the time of its closure, and Augean were engaged to start the process of working in the pot rooms, the size of which is equivalent to twenty-seven football pitches. There are two pot rooms housing a total of 352 electrolytic pots, of which 170 were in use. Each pot room comprises two parallel buildings, which are separated by courtyards containing 8 x 80 metre chimney stacks.
When fully operational, the plant was one of the most productive in the world, and the anode blocks produced at Lynemouth were being produced at the rate of one every three minutes. Augean’s Industrial Services Team will be on site for 18 months removing the aluminium oxide from the site, using SUPERVAC, with a team working initially in the roof voids, filling 1 tonne bags, for removal to an adjacent part of the site for final transfer and treatment.
Mark Carton
0191 5641444
Augean PLC was formed in 2004, and is listed on the AIM. The company is the UK’s leading provider of waste management services with an emphasis on hazardous waste.
The name Augean was born out of Greek mythology, inspired by the fifth labour of Hercules.
Augean is the strategic partner for a range of organisations in the land management, oil and gas, construction and nuclear decommissioning sectors. Augean works with other leading waste management companies to offer a complete solution to any business.
With headquarters in Wetherby and a network of sites and facilities across the UK from Avon-mouth to Aberdeen, Augean PLC has become a leading facility for the transfer, treatment and disposal of waste products, with a specialism in hazardous waste.
Augean is committed to delivery the highest quality service in the management of a wide range of hazardous wastes, and provides a strategic partner to businesses in all industrial and construction sectors.
