The Canadian government agreed to invest as much as C$222 million in the project, which will also see Rio Tinto increase production of minerals including titanium and scandium at the 72-year-old plant.
The plant “has not been very profitable for the last 10 years,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm said in an interview. “It could be very difficult to make such investments, but I now happen to believe that the world is changing — there is not just increasing demand, but increasing demand for greener products.”
Rio Tinto plans to quadruple its production capacity of scandium oxide to reach up to 12 metric tons a year, giving the company a 20% global market share, after adding new modules to the plant. The mineral, which is used in solid oxide fuel cells and aluminum alloys, is mainly produced in Russia and China.
Rio Tinto is also setting up a pilot plant at the facility to assess new processes for…
