Rio Tinto advances gallium metal R&D project in partnership with Canada

Rio Tinto (RIO) announced that it is moving forward on a research and development project to extract primary gallium from its alumina refining process in Quebec, with a conditionally approved contribution from Natural Resources Canada under the Global Partnerships Initiative. Plans are underway to build a demonstration plant with a capacity of up to 4 tonnes of gallium per year on the same site. The Government of Canada has conditionally approved a non-repayable contribution of up to C$18.95M in the project, in addition to the C$7M committed by the Government of Quebec in December 2024. Rio Tinto Aluminium and Lithium Chief Executive Jerome Pecresse said: “Our Vaudreuil alumina refinery in Quebec, Canada is a strategic asset for our integrated aluminium operations. Extracting gallium from our existing refining process would create additional value from this asset and strengthen the North American supply chain for gallium, a critical mineral used in everything from high-performance radars, to smartphones, electric cars and laptops.”