Alcoa and Rio Tinto form ELYSIS to commercialise carbon-free aluminium smelting, backed by Apple, Canada and Québec

ELYSIS/ELYSIS inert-anode smelting

Alcoa and Rio Tinto launched ELYSIS, a Montreal joint venture to scale up Alcoa's smelting process that gives off oxygen instead of greenhouse gases. Canada and Québec each put in C$60M, Apple C$13M and the two parents C$55M over three years. A technology package was to go on sale from 2024.

• HQ in Montreal; research centre in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
• Québec takes a 3.5% stake; Alcoa and Rio Tinto split the rest
• Alcoa had run the process at various scales since 2009
• Full use in Canadian smelters likened to taking 1.8 million cars off the road