Forging ahead with titanium
Rio Tinto Fer et Titane,
image: Rio Tinto
As US seeks to cut its dependence in titanium, critical for aviation and military industries, on imports, particularly from Russia, long overdue investments in domestic capacity are taking shape in North America. Rio Tinto, which already processes titanium dioxide feedstocks for industrial applications, has announced that it is partnering with the metals industry in developing a new process for extracting and refining titanium metal. It is setting up a pilot plant at its subsidiary Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) metallurgical complex in northern Quebec to validate what it describes as a low-cost process which requires no harmful chemicals and does not generate direct greenhouse gas emissions.
The plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. This project has the potential to greatly increase the production of raw titanium metal in North America, while strengthening the security of supply for this critical mineral for Canadian and U.S. manufacturers, Rio Tinto said. Rio Tinto is also piloting BlueSmelting ilmenite smelting technology that could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 95% compared with RTFT’s current reduction process. It plans to complete construction on a demonstration plant capable of processing 40,000 t/yr of ilmenite ore in the first half of 2023.
These are part of Rio Tinto’s portfolio of green investment projects helped by the Canadian government’s C$222m (US$162m) Strategic Innovation Fund. Earlier this year, Rio Tinto began utilising the waste stream of its titanium dioxide production to produce the oxide of scandium, a critical metal for aerospace aluminium alloys and solid fuel cells. It will now add new modules to the plant to quadruple scandium production from 3t/yr to 12/yr. The C$30-35m (US$22-26m) project is expected to start producing scandium oxide in 2024.
Rio Tinto’s expansion into all things titanium come as in the US, two Berkshire Hathaway owned companies, BHE Renewables and Precision Castparts Corp have announced they are buying more than 2,000 acres at the former Century Aluminum site in Jackson County, West Virginia to build a modern titanium smelter powered by solar energy. The site will also be used by PCC’s titanium subsidiary Timet, These new investments are just some of the ways to green up energy– and material– intensive titanium production.
The now ubiquitous Kroll Process, which has displaced the Hunter Process as the dominant 20th century technology uses chlorination of feedstock and then metallothermic reduction of titanium tetrachloride to produce the raw metal, titanium sponge, which is then smelted into ingot and fabricated via reductive processes such as casting, forging or extrusion, with a significant portion of the metal ending up in revert. However newer technologies have focused on a range of pathways, including electrolysis directly from titanium oxide ore, to make titanium powders. These can be fabricated using additive manufacture, with minimal material loss.
US curbs advanced chip exports to China
In October, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security imposed new export controls on advanced computing semiconductor chips and computer commodities that contain them as well as for semiconductors for use in supercomputer located in or destined for China. Also curbing the export of software used in developing this technology, it pointed to its potential military use and national security concern. Along with the US CHIPS Act which disincentivises US investment in Chiese chip manufacturing capacity, the measures are expected significantly to hobble the Chinese semiconductor industry.
The Chinese Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) said it strongly opposed the new US controls. “Not only will such unilateral measure harm the further global supply chain of the semiconductor industry, more importantly it will create an atmosphere of uncertainty, which will negatively affect the trust, goodwill, and spirit of cooperation that the players of the global semiconductor industry have carefully cultivated over the past decades,” CSIA warned.
The US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said it was assessing the impact of the new export controls and working with its members and the US government to ensure compliance. “We understand the goal of ensuring national security and urge the U.S. government to implement the rules in a targeted way—and in collaboration with international partners—to help level the playing field and mitigate unintended harm to U.S. innovation,” SIA added.
Nuclear fusion for the future
The UK government has selected the West Burton power station site in Nottinghamshire to house ‘ STEP ‘ (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), the prototype fusion nuclear energy plant to be built by 2040.If successful it could revolutionise UK energy production as the country seeks to break with over-reliance on oil and gas. Fusion is one of the options for its nuclear energy future vision, alongside the more tried-and-tested nuclear fission small modular reactors (SMRs), as developed by Rolls-Royce. The raw materials used in the fusion reaction are hydrogen isotopes: deuterium and tritium—the latter can be produced from lithium.
Whichever shape future reactors take, the materials needed, be it for fuel, hydrogen production catalysts, storage, radiation shielding or construction, require a wide range of specialty metals.
Cobalt comes to Idaho
Australian-based Jervois Mining has started commissioning at its Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) mine in the US, which aims to produce 2,000t/yr of cobalt in concentrate. Steady state production at nameplate capacity expected by the end of Q1 2023. Jervois has an option to process the concentrate at its São Miguel Paulista refinery in São Paulo, Brazil and is in talks with US allied third-party processors. The company said it will supply the North American market.
