Rio Tinto Expands Aluminum Recycling Capacity at Laterrière Plant

SAGUENAY, Canada – Rio Tinto is investing $8.4 million to expand the recycling capacity of its aluminium operations in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, to offer rolled product customers in North America a new, sustainable solution combining low-carbon and recycled aluminium.

A new remelt furnace will be added at the Laterrière Plant’s casting centre to recycle aluminum cuttings from Rio Tinto’s operations and rolling mill customers in manufacturing sectors, producing rolling ingots for the automotive and packaging industries.

With an initial capacity of 22,000 metric tons of remelted aluminum per year, the new aluminum recycling system is expected to be operational at the end of 2021.

Rio Tinto vice president of sales and marketing Tolga Egrilmezer said “The investment continues Rio Tinto’s focus on enhancing the recycling solutions it offers to customers, supporting the transition to a circular economy. This new furnace will allow us to provide a recycling service to our customers for scrap from their manufacturing processes, helping them meet the growing consumer demand for sustainable products. This innovative step will add to our responsible production in Quebec, where we produce aluminium with one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world using hydropower.”

Rio Tinto’s technical marketing experts will assist customers in selecting the right recycled content together with the optimal alloy for their specific needs.

The rolled product recycling service will complement the closed looped solution Rio Tinto is offering to billet customers from 2021, providing high quality alloys made of low carbon primary aluminium and recycled content.

Notes to editors

Rio Tinto is an industry leader in responsible aluminium production, with operations in Canada run on 100% renewable hydropower. In 2016, Rio Tinto launched RenewAl, the world’s first certified low CO₂ primary aluminium brand. It has helped to pioneer responsible production standards for the global industry as a founding member of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), becoming the first producer to offer ASI Aluminium in 2018. Looking to the future, ELYSIS, Rio Tinto’s partnership with Alcoa supported by Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec, is further developing a revolutionary new direct greenhouse emissions free aluminium smelting technology.

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