Fortune Minerals, Rio Tinto partner to grow North American critical minerals production
Rio Tinto Kennecott’s integrated copper mining and smelting operations in Utah will be the site for development of technology to improve recovery of the critical minerals, cobalt and bismuth, it was announced recently. Fortune Minerals Ltd. of London, Ontario, Canada, and mining giant Rio Tinto, owner of the Kennecott operations, are collaborating to develop the technology. Under a memorandum of understanding signed between the companies, testing will be done in Utah and at Fortune’s planned Alberta, Canada, refinery.
The partnership aims to maximize the value of critical mineral supply chain investments and increase Fortune’s planned cobalt and bismuth refining operations to process co-product streams of the minerals recovered from the Kennecott smelter in Utah.
In 2020, the Canadian and U.S. governments signed the “Joint Action Plan on Critical Mineral Collaboration” to enable more North American production of the critical minerals needed in new technologies. Cobalt and bismuth are both included in this list and are used for sustainable energy resources.
Cobalt is used to manufacture lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and store energy in electric vehicles, portable electronics and stationary storage cells. Bismuth is used in automotive coatings, paints and low-temperature alloys and castings. Consumption is growing primarily as a non-toxic and environmentally safe replacement for lead for products used in potable drinking water sources and electronics, glass and ammunition. A significant new use for bismuth is in environmentally safe, high-density plugs to properly decommission oil and gas wells, preventing greenhouse gas leakage, blowouts and aquifer contamination. Manganese-bismuth magnets have also been identified for potential replacement of rare earth elements in electric vehicle powertrains.
“Working with Rio Tinto to recover metals from their co-product streams is part of our corporate strategy to expand production of critical minerals, and we are excited to be working with one of the world’s premier mining companies on the first of these opportunities,” said Robin Goad, resident and CEO of Fortune Minerals. “This collaboration could provide a solution to support greater production of the metals needed for the energy transition and growing sustainable economy.”
“We are committed to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs to grow and decarbonize. We are enthusiastic about this partnership with Fortune Minerals as we continue looking at our waste streams to develop new, sustainable sources of critical minerals here in North America,” said Nate Foster, Rio Tinto Kennecott managing director.
Rio Tinto is a multinational diversified mining company with a global footprint that includes the Kennecott integrated operations in Salt Lake County. For 120 years, Kennecott has been mining and processing copper and other minerals including gold, silver, molybdenum and tellurium from the ore body of the Bingham Canyon Mine.