(MENAFN- Mid-East.Info) Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that 217 Hawksbill turtles have hatched at the company's Al Taweelah beach this summer nesting season.Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Each year, EGA's Sustainability team and volunteers from across the company clear the beach of washed-up rubbish throughout the nesting season, monitor visiting turtles, and protect nests.Some 110 nests have been laid on the beach next to EGA's operations since the programme began in 2011, with more than 7,200 turtles successfully hatched.
EGA also works with the Jumeirah Group's Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Centre to rescue and rehabilitate injured and sick turtles, although no turtles that needed care were found this year.
Salman Abdulla, EGA's Executive Vice President of Sustainability and ESG, said:“Turtles were using Al Taweelah beach for nesting long before we built our plant nearby, and it is a priority forthat they can continue to do so every year. We ensure that our operations do not disturb this natural environment,and do everything we can to protect turtle nesting. We want to play our part in ensuring this iconic species thrives.”
Hawksbill turtles have an average lifespan of 30 to 50 years and a female can lay over 100 eggs during each nesting season.
About EGA:
Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum,Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.
Today EGA is the world's biggest 'premium aluminium' producer and the largest industrial company in the
United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.
EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.
EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.
EGA's aluminium is the second largest made-in-the export after oil and gas. I n 2022, EGA sold 2.72 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only producer and makes the the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.
EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2022, value-added products accounted for 78 per cent of EGA's cast metal sales.
EG's aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.
Around 10 per cent of EGA's aluminium production is sold in the to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA's aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the supports almost 48,000 jobs. EGA itself employs around 6,800 of these people including more than 1,200 Nationals.
EGA has focused on technology development for over 30 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally. As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspld's leading.
metals anires in all its operations to be measured amongst the word mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA's Al Taweelah site became the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA's Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. EGA's bauxite mining subsidiary, Guinea Alumina Corporation, achieved the first ASI certification in Guinea in 2023. Al Taweelah alumina refinery was certified later in 2023, with the result that EGA now has all of its global operations certified to the aluminium industry's internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.
In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun.
EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.
EGA's Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.
EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA's Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.
EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA's electricity generation capacity is 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.
EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA's alumina refinery is the first in the and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE's dependence on imported alumina and supplies over 45 per cent of EGA's needs.
Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA's wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.