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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Rio Tinto Plans Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, Aluminum Recycling Plant

08/31/2022
Rio Tinto will build a new aluminum recycling facility at its Arvida Plant in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada. The $29 million (US) project is expected to create ten jobs.

The investment will expand the company’s offering of low-carbon aluminum solutions for customers in the automotive, packaging and construction markets, and make Rio Tinto the first primary aluminum producer in North America to incorporate recycled post-consumer aluminum into aluminum alloys. The recycling center is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2024 and will have an initial capacity of 30,000 tons per year.

Clean aluminum scrap sourced locally from used vehicles and construction materials will be remelted to produce recycled content that will be used in aluminum billets at the Arvida smelter as well as other products from the company’s Quebec facilities.

“Investing in new recycling facilities in Arvida is another step in our strategy to expand our offering of low carbon aluminum products and integrate the circular economy into our value chain,” said Rio Tinto Aluminum Managing Director of Atlantic Operations Sebastien Ross.

Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation. The company is an industry leader in the responsible production of aluminum, with operations in Canada powered by 100% renewable hydroelectric energy.

“This will allow us to continue to meet our customers’ growing demand for responsible, traceable and responsible products,” added Ross.

In 2021, the company commissioned a new remelting furnace at its Laterrière Plant to recycle aluminum scrap from its internal operations and manufacturing customers to produce rolling ingots for the automotive and packaging industries. In 2020, Rio Tinto partnered with Shawinigan Aluminum to offer its customers a closed-loop recycling solution to complement its low-carbon billet production.

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