Rio Tinto’s century-old Quebec aluminum smelter is living on borrowed time
, it has all been about protecting hundreds of jobs in the remote Saguenay region; for Rio Tinto, the plant has remained a profitable asset that has paid for itself several times over.of early 20th-century urban planning, it was the envy of much of Canada during its early years. The town was amalgamated into its neighbour, Jonquière, in 1975 and rolled into the City of Saguenay in 2002.
Stakeholders complain that Rio Tinto, which acquired the Arvida smelter in its 2007 takeover of Canadian-based Alcan Inc., has a commitment problem. In 2006, Alcan announced plans to close the Arvida smelter and replace it with a modern smelter with twice the production capacity by 2015. But Alcan’s new foreign owners never made good on that promise.
Rio Tinto executives have told union officials the company could seek another extension for Arvida that could see a portion of the smelter’s older potlines continue to operate beyond 2025 until newer ones are built at an adjacent facility that opened in 2013. That site produces about 60,000 tonnes of aluminum annually using the AP60 technology, which was originally developed by French aluminum giant Pechiney. Alcan bought Pechiney in 2004.
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