Rio Tinto's Sustainability Efforts

Rio Tinto's Aluminum Operations

• Rio Tinto acquired Alcan in 2007 and has been slow to fulfill its promises, including its plan to produce zero-carbon aluminum.

Quebec Operations

• Rio Tinto's Quebec aluminum operations, built up by Alcan over 80 years, are among the world's most profitable.
• The eight wholly and jointly owned smelters in Quebec mostly rely on cheap and emissions-free hydroelectric power from dams built by Alcan.
• The additional power bought from Hydro-Québec is sold at a discount to market prices.

Arvida Smelter Replacement

• Rio Tinto announced plans to replace its 98-year-old Arvida smelter in Saguenay, Quebec, with a $1.4-billion facility by 2028.
• The new smelter will generate much less carbon emissions per tonne of aluminum than the old one.
• However, its overall capacity will be barely half of what Rio Tinto promised when it bought Alcan.

Elysis Project

• Rio Tinto and Alcoa are jointly developing the Elysis process, which uses inert anodes instead of carbon anodes during the electrolysis stage.
• The project has been delayed, and Rio Tinto does not expect the new technology to achieve emissions abatement across its smelters before 2030.
• Rio Tinto and Alcoa received $160 million from the federal and Quebec governments to develop the Elysis process.

Challenges and Future

• Rio Tinto's Quebec smelters are still among the province's largest greenhouse-gas emitters, spewing out over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
• Customers are increasingly unhappy about the carbon footprint of Rio Tinto's smelters.
• Implementing Elysis, if successful, could require the construction of new smelters to meet Rio Tinto's goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.
• Other companies, such as Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA, are also working on zero-carbon techniques and may become competitors to Rio Tinto.