Rio Tinto starts demonstration plant for lithium concentration in Quebec
September 29 2022 - 8:32AM
Business Wire
Rio Tinto has started producing spodumene concentrate, a mineral
used in the production of lithium for batteries, at a demonstration
plant in its Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium (RTIT) Quebec Operations
in our metallurgical complex in Sorel-Tracy, Canada.
The plant will demonstrate at industrial scale a new spodumene
concentration process that provides lithium oxide (Li20) grades and
recoveries well above the industry average. The process was
developed by researchers at Rio Tinto’s Critical Minerals and
Technology Centre and tested on spodumene ore samples from various
countries. It offers the environmental benefit of not using
chemical products and generating only dry, inert residues.
RTIT Managing Director Stéphane Leblanc said: “Rio Tinto is
exploring new, sustainable ways to extract battery materials for
the energy transition. We are seeing strong interest in the market
for a North American supply of spodumene concentrate to support
production of lithium batteries. Our demonstration plant will allow
us to further validate the innovative spodumene concentration
process developed at our Critical Minerals and Technology Centre as
we consider moving to commercial scale production.”
The demonstration plant was commissioned in June after
successful laboratory testing of the new process and produced its
first ton of spodumene concentrate in July 2022. It will test ore
from various local suppliers including Sayona, an emerging lithium
producer with projects in Québec and Western Australia.
Notes to editors
Rio Tinto is committed to the battery materials sector and
lithium’s role in a low carbon future. The company’s portfolio of
lithium projects focuses on leading edge mining and processing
technology to deliver environmentally sensitive solutions to the
production of battery-grade lithium carbonate for electric
vehicles.
In March 2022, Rio Tinto completed the acquisition of the Rincon
lithium project, a large undeveloped lithium brine project located
in the heart of the lithium triangle in Argentina. This long life,
scaleable project has the potential to have one of the lowest
carbon footprints in the industry. Rio Tinto also recovers
battery-grade lithium from waste material using a breakthrough
process at its Boron operations in California and owns the Jadar
lithium-borate project in Serbia.
In June 2022, Rio Tinto announced a $10 million strategic equity
investment in Nano One, a Vancouver-based technology company with a
patented industrial process to produce low-cost, high-performance
cathode used in lithium-ion batteries. This partnership
contemplates the potential use of Rio Tinto’s battery metal
products, including iron powders from RTFT and lithium, as
feedstock for the production of Nano One’s cathode materials.
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