A pilot plant will be built at Rio’s Complexe JonquièRe in Saguenay to validate the extraction technology, with operations expected to begin in 2027.

Rio Tinto has secured conditional approval for an 18.95 million Canadian dollar non-repayable grant from Natural Resources Canada to support its gallium extraction project at the Vaudreuil alumina refinery in Quebec, under NRCan's Global Partnerships Initiative.

The funding will back an R&D project to extract primary gallium from Rio Tinto’s Quebec alumina refining operations, with government support totaling up to C$18.95 million (about $13.9 million).

If scaled to commercial production, the project could yield roughly 40 tonnes of gallium annually, equating to about 5% of current global production and reducing North American dependency on external sources.

Global primary gallium production exceeds 700 metric tonnes per year and is currently entirely sourced outside North America; a future Rio plant at scale could contribute up to 40 tonnes annually, strengthening regional supply chains for gallium.

Officials frame the initiative as part of broader efforts to build responsible critical mineral supply chains, boost productivity, and enhance economic and security resilience.

The project aims to add value by extracting gallium from existing refining processes, thereby strengthening North American gallium supply chains used in electronics, defense, and clean-energy applications.

Vaudreuil refinery, in operation since 1936, supplies 70% of the alumina for Rio Tinto’s regional smelters, with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year, and is the only Canadian facility that extracts alumina from bauxite.

Rio produced its first gallium in May 2025 through a partnership with Indium Corporation and plans a demonstration plant at the same site with a capacity of up to four tonnes per year.

Additionally, Rio intends a demonstration plant at its Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean aluminum hub capable of producing up to 4 tonnes of gallium annually, with commercial-scale production anticipated around 2027.

The NRCan funding is non-repayable and complements C$7 million previously pledged by the Government of Quebec for the project.

Quebec’s additional C$7 million commitment came in December 2024, reinforcing government support for the initiative.