Aluminium smelting goes green

RIO Tinto has formed a partnership with tech giant Apple and aluminium producer Alcoa to roll out a carbon-free smelting process for the lightweight metal.

Rio Tinto and Alcoa were set to announce overnight a new process to make aluminium that produces oxygen and eliminates all direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process.

The mining giant and Alcoa will head up a new joint ven- ture called Elysis to commercialise the carbon-free smelting process on a large scale.

Elysis will be headquartered in Canada which hosts Rio’s main aluminium smelting business.

The new business venture will develop and license the technology so it can be used to retrofit existing smelters or build new facilities.

It expects to begin selling the technology in 2024.

It will be launched with $196 million of funding pro- vided by Rio, Alcoa, Apple and the Canadian Government.

Rio and Alcoa will invest $58 million while Apple — which uses aluminium in its products — will chip in $13.5 million. Apple helped facilitate the collaboration between Rio and Alcoa and will provide technical support to the new business.

Rio Tinto chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques said the new smelting process was the most significant innovation in the aluminium industry for more than a century.