Lafarge Canada is working with its subsidiary Geocycle Canada and Rio Tinto to reuse waste from the aluminium smelting process to make cement.
Lafarge Canada says the initiative will reduce the need to extract other raw materials and create value from waste.
Rio Tinto – an aluminium producer – is working with Geocycle to develop a product called Alextra. It is made from used plotlining as part of the aluminium electrolysis process that would otherwise go to landfill.
Alextra is the result of years of research and development, aimed at finding new ways to deliver sustainable outcomes and value from used potlining.
Lafarge Canada is to produce on average one million tonnes of cement a year at its facilities in Bath, Ontario, using Alextra as an alternative to raw materials such as alumina and silica.
The partners will explore options to further expand the supply of Alextra from Rio Tinto’s Potlining Treatment Plant in Saguenay-Lac-St Jean to Lafarge Canada’s network of cement plants.
