Emirates Global Aluminium has signed an agreement with an Indonesian aluminium company to license some of its technology, and to co-operate on the the development of a new smelter in the South East Asian nation and the upgrade of an existing facility. EGA will form a joint venture with state-owned PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium to develop a greenfield aluminium smelter and will offer services related to technology, the supply of raw materials and the marketing of metals produced. The firms have already begun cooperation on the potential upgrade of Inalum's existing smelter in North Sumatra using UAE-developed technology. This has involved the short-term secondment of Inalum engineers to EGA in the UAE for training in reduction cell modelling, a process used in aluminium smelting. "We believe that we can make a big contribution to the success of Inalum's expansion plans, and potentially even in future a vertically-integrated alumina refinery, to the benefit of both our countries,” said EGA's managing director Abdulla Kalban. EGA has been developing aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 25 years and recently completed a three-year technology transfer project with Aluminium Bahrain on its huge Potline 6 expansion project. The transfer was the first time a UAE industrial company had licensed its core process technology internationally. Inalum has a smelter powered by electricity generated from the Asahan River. The company was initially set up in 1976 as joint venture company between the Indonesian government and Nippon Asahan Aluminium, a consortium of Japanese companies, before it was fully acquired by the government in 2013. “I am pleased that we have developed a strong and cooperative relationship with EGA which has now led to the signing of this [agreement]," said Inalum's president-director Orias Petrus Moedak. "We are looking forward to deepening our work with EGA and to potentially deploying EGA’s technology in Indonesia.”