Rio Tinto plans research and development program.
Bauxite is the primary source of aluminium, but the ore also contains gallium, which is not always targeted for extraction. Rio Tinto aims to change this at its production facility in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Canada. The mining company announced on Friday that a research and development program is currently underway, which could be followed by the construction of a demonstration plant. This plant could produce 3.5 tons of gallium per year, and in the long term, a scaled-up refinery could reach a capacity of 40 tons. This would account for five to ten percent of current global production, the company stated.
The government of Quebec is supporting the project with up to five million US dollars. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, gallium is already being extracted from production waste in Canada and refined into high-purity gallium. China is the leading source of primary gallium by a wide margin. Earlier this month, the country banned the export of this raw material and other metals to the United States, affecting supply through third countries as well. If Rio Tinto succeeds, this would be good news for the high-tech industry in the United States, which needs the material for computer chips, LEDs, and fast chargers.
Photo: iStock/Roman Didkivskyi
