The Dutch company, Boskalis Westminster has been awarded EUR 125 million contract to excavate at least 3 million tonnes of bauxite in an area not mined for 3 decades.

Boskalis Westminster will excavate the Lelydorp 1 Mine and transport the bauxite to Suriname Aluminum Company's refinery at Paranam in District Para, a few miles outside the capital, Paramaribo.

SURALCO a joint subsidiary of Alcoa Inc and Alumina Limited said that work should begin in the Q1 of 2013. Excavation work at Lelydorp 1 was halted 30 years ago because of high operational costs to mine the land.

Boskalis Westminster will remove approximately 20 million square meters of overlay material to reach the bauxite mineral. It expects to excavate approximately 3.8 million tons of bauxite.

(Sourced from www.worldal.com)