<article><p class="lead">UK-Australian mining company Rio Tinto has started construction of a commercial-scale scandium oxide demonstration plant in Canada's Quebec province that has the potential to expand the market for the critical mineral.</p><p>Production is scheduled to start in the second quarter of this year with an initial capacity of 3 t/yr of scandium oxide. This would give Rio Tinto a 10-20pc share of global production, which is currently concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region and Russia. The plant will be able to produce high purity (99.99pc and above) scandium oxide, aluminium-scandium master alloy and specialty alloys.</p><p>The company has developed a process for extracting scandium from the waste streams from its titanium dioxide production, with first test production at a <a target="_blank" href="https://metals.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2168204">pilot plant</a> in 2017. The plant will be located at the Rio Tinto Fer et Titane Sorel Tracy metallurgical plant near Montreal, which processes ore from the Havre-Saint-Pierre ilmenite mining complex in the east of the province. Rio Tinto has invested $6mn and the government provided a further $650,000 under the province's development plan for critical and strategic minerals. </p><p>Today the main commercial application is in solid-oxide fuel cells, which generate electricity from a chemical reaction that can be fuelled by natural gas and biogas. The largest single scandium consumer is Bloom Energy in the US, which along with other firms, is developing power supply solutions for sectors including data and distribution centres, commercial vehicles, hydrogen production and fuelling stations, light industry, healthcare and emergency response. Scandium also has critical but low-volume applications in photonics (lasers) and next generation communication networks. And research is under way into the use of scandium aluminium nitride in power electronics.</p><p>But the largest potential growth area for scandium is in high-performance aluminium alloys where it can greatly improve mechanical properties, weldability and resistance to heat and corrosion. Scandium-aluminium alloys have been used for decades in aerospace and other applications, but have never been commercialised on a large scale outside the defence sector.</p><p><i>By Caroline Messecar</i></p></article>
