Rio Tinto will invest $1.1 billion to expand its low-carbon aluminum smelter in Quebec, adding 160,000 mt/year of primary aluminum capacity through the addition of 96 new AP60 pots, the company said June 12.
The investment at the company's Complexe Jonquière facility, which include up to $113 million of financial support from the Quebec government, will coincide with the gradual closure of potrooms at the Arvida smelter on the same site, Rio Tinto said.
The expansion would take the facility to a total 134 AP60 pots and a capacity of about 220,000 mt/year. The new capacity would offset the 170,000 mt of capacity lost through the gradual closure of potrooms at the Arvida smelter from 2024, Rio Tinto said.
Additionally, the company will add 30,000 mt of new capacity through the commissioning of its previously announced recycling facility at Arvida in the first quarter of 2025.
Construction is expected to take two and a half years with commissioning of the new pots expected to start in the first half of 2026.
"This investment is aligned with our strategy to decarbonise our value chains and grow in materials essential for the energy transition," CEO Jakob Stausholm said in a statement.
The total 160,000 mt/year expanded capacity is enough for 400,000 electric vehicles, according to the company.
Rio Tinto said it also is working with the governments of Canada and Quebec to deploy the ELYSIS zero-carbon aluminum smelting technology at the company's Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean facilities. The Elysis venture seeks to enable primary aluminum smelting with no direct greenhouse gas emissions.
"With the current development pathway, ELYSIS aims to have its technology available for installation from 2024 and the production of larger volumes of carbon-free aluminum approximately two years later," a company statement said.
Rio Tinto also has signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's federal government to strengthen supply chains for low-carbon primary metals, critical minerals and other value added products.
The Platts spot 99.7% P1020 US Aluminum Transaction Premium was assessed at 24.5 cents/lb plus LME cash, delivered Midwest, net-30-day payment terms, on June 9, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
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