Rio Tinto To Begin Construction Of Pilot Plant At Complexe Jonquiere In Canada For Its R&D Project To Extract Gallium With Natural Resources Canada Under Global Partnerships Initiative
Benzinga Newsdesk 8 months ago
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Rio Tinto is moving forward on a research and development project to extract primary gallium from its alumina refining process in Quebec, with a conditionally approved contribution from Natural Resources Canada under the
Rio Tinto is moving forward on a research and development project to extract primary gallium from its alumina refining process in Quebec, with a conditionally approved contribution from Natural Resources Canada under the Global Partnerships Initiative (GPI).
After successfully extracting first gallium together with its partner Indium Corporation in May 2025, Rio Tinto will start construction of a pilot plant at its Complexe Jonquière in Saguenay, Canada to validate the technology in an industrial environment. The new plant is expected to be operational in 2027.
Plans are underway to build a demonstration plant with a capacity of up to 4 tonnes of gallium per year on the same site.
The Government of Canada has conditionally approved a non-repayable contribution of up to C$18.95 million in the project, in addition to the C$7 million committed by the Government of Québec in December 2024.