Rio Tinto starts tellurium production at Kennecott
May 11 2022 - 11:45AM
Business Wire
Rio Tinto has started producing tellurium at its Kennecott
copper operation in Utah, becoming one of only two U.S. producers
of the critical mineral used in advanced thin film photovoltaic
solar panels.
The tellurium will be refined in North America by 5N Plus, a
leading global producer of specialty semiconductors and performance
materials, under a commercial agreement between 5N Plus and Rio
Tinto. The refined tellurium will primarily be supplied to First
Solar, the only American company among the world’s ten largest
solar manufacturers, under an existing supply contract between 5N
Plus and First Solar. 5N Plus will also use the tellurium to
manufacture ultra-high purity semiconductor materials at its
facility in St. George, Utah, to serve the security and medical
imaging markets.
Approximately 20 tons of tellurium will be produced per year
through a new $2.9 million circuit built at the Kennecott refinery.
This valuable material is recovered from by-product streams
generated during the copper refining process, reducing the amount
of waste that needs to be treated and discarded as mine
tailings.
Tellurium is listed as a critical mineral by the U.S. Government
due to its importance to the economy and energy security.
Rio Tinto Copper Chief Operating Officer Clayton Walker said:
“We are proud to deliver a new domestic supply of tellurium to
support the manufacturing of solar panels and other critical
equipment here in the United States. Approximately 90 percent of
the world’s tellurium resource is contained in copper ore and no
other metal has more critical mineral by-products than copper. The
Kennecott team is constantly looking for ways to extract new
critical minerals to meet emerging demand for the clean energy
transition.”
5N Plus President and Chief Executive Officer Gervais Jacques
said: “As a leading global supplier of specialty semiconductor
compounds for applications in renewable energy, security and
medical imaging, 5N Plus is proud of this partnership with Rio
Tinto, and to further leverage its expertise in the transformation
of mining and metallurgical by-products into high purity
value-added critical minerals such as tellurium, here in North
America.”
First Solar Chief Manufacturing Operations Officer Mike
Koralewski said: “Rio Tinto’s decision to invest in tellurium is a
win for responsibly-produced, American solar. We’re thrilled that
tellurium from Kennecott will play a role in powering our country’s
transition to a sustainable energy future.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said, “Utah continues to play a key
role in domestic production of critical minerals. With operations
in our state like Rio Tinto Kennecott, we are able to demonstrate
to the world how to responsibly make use of our natural resources
to move toward a sustainable future.”
Tellurium is one of ten metals and products recovered from ore
extracted at Kennecott, which produces nearly 15 percent of U.S.
copper with the country’s lowest carbon footprint.
Notes to editors
Rio Tinto is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Critical Materials Institute (CMI) to discover further ways to
economically recover critical minerals such as tellurium and
lithium. The company is also investing in new facilities to extract
battery-grade lithium from waste rock at its Boron, California mine
site and high-quality scandium oxide from waste streams at its
metallurgical complex in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec.
First Solar, which produces cadmium telluride (CadTel) solar
panels, is expanding its U.S. manufacturing capacity by 3.3
gigawatts (GW) annually, by building its third American
manufacturing facility in Lake Township, Ohio. When fully
operational, the new facility will scale the company’s Northwest
Ohio footprint to a total annual capacity of 6 GW, which is
believed to make it the largest fully vertically integrated solar
manufacturing complex outside of China.
riotinto.com
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Rio Tinto plc
6 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4AD United Kingdom
T +44 20 7781 2000 Registered in England No. 719885
Rio Tinto Limited
Level 7, 360 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 Australia
T +61 3 9283 3333 Registered in Australia ABN 96 004 458 404
Category: Kennecott
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