Rio Tinto commissioned a new remelt furnace at its Laterrière Plant in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. The furnace provides rolled product customers in the North American automotive and packaging industries a new sustainable supply solution combining low-carbon and recycled aluminum.
“Aluminum is 100% recyclable and the demand for recycled metal is continually growing,” said Sébastien Ross, managing director Atlantic Operations, Rio Tinto Aluminium. “With the commissioning of our new remelt furnace, we are now offering our customers an additional solution to recycle scrap from their manufacturing processes and turn it into high quality, low carbon aluminum alloys. Rio Tinto will continue working closely with our customers and partners to support the transition to a circular economy.”
The $8.4 million project was completed over two years. Supplied by GNA alutech, located in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada, the aluminum remelt furnace is equipped with highly efficient burners to minimize its carbon footprint. The furnace adds 22,000 tonnes of recycling capacity to Rio Tinto’s aluminum operations in the local region. In addition, the project has created seven new jobs.
This rolled product recycling service complements the closed-looped solution Rio Tinto introduced for billet customers in 2021.
In addition, to introducing and expanding its recycling capabilities, the company has been working to ensure the sustainability of its primary aluminum operations. In 2016, Rio Tinto launched RenewAl, a world first certified low CO2 primary aluminum brand. It has also 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 certified aluminum in 2018.
Looking to the future, ELYSIS, the joint venture between Rio Tinto and Alcoa with support from Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec, is scaling-up a revolutionary new direct greenhouse emissions free aluminum smelting technology.