Aluminium scrap. Credit: Business Wire/ Rio Tinto.

Canadian aluminium producer Rio Tinto has announced plans to expand its Arvida Plant in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, with a new aluminium recycling facility.

Rio Tinto is investing $29m in the new facility, which will make it one of the leading aluminium producers in North America to incorporate recycled post-consumer aluminium into aluminium alloys.

Construction will begin in the months to come and is slated to be operational in the second quarter of 2024.

The facility will feature a remelting furnace with regenerative burners, and an automated scrap loading system will be added to an existing building at the Arvida plant.

With initial capacity of 30,000t per year, the facility will expand Rio Tinto’s offering of low-carbon aluminium solutions for various markets, including packaging, construction and automotive markets.

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The company will also add approximately 10 new permanent jobs at the Arvida Plant.

The plant will remelt clean aluminium collected from used vehicles and construction materials to produce recycled content.

This content will be used in aluminium billets at the Arvida smelter and other products from Rio Tinto’s Quebec facilities.

Rio Tinto Atlantic Operations aluminium managing director Sebastien Ross said: “Investing in new recycling facilities in Arvida is another step in our strategy to expand our offering of low carbon aluminium products and integrate the circular economy into our value chain.

“This will allow us to continue to meet our customers’ growing demand for responsible, traceable and responsible products.”

The new investment comes after the company commissioned a new remelting furnace at its Laterrière Plant in 2021.