Eck, Imperial explore scandium modified alloy

US aluminium castings producer Eck Industries has partnered with Canada's Imperial Mining to look into the potential for adding scandium to an aluminium-magnesium alloy to increase strength and open up new applications.

Growing investment in scandium production has sparked interest in its potential as an alloying agent in advanced lightweight materials for the transportation sector. Eck and Imperial have signed a letter of intent to research the addition of scandium to a commercially available alloy that Eck already works with in a number of applications such as battery trays and automobile body structures.

"535 alloy, also known as AlMag, is an obvious bridge for scandium into castings for the transportation sector," Eck Industries' vice-president of research and development David Weiss said. "The great thing about castings is that you can make extraordinarily complex structural parts relatively inexpensively. Customers do not need more press releases. They need data."

Previous alloy research has focused mainly on high-value products, partly because of concerns about high and opaque scandium oxide pricing. Scandium has been used for decades in niche aerospace alloys for the defence sector. But raw material supply was limited to small by-product streams from mining operations in Asia-Pacific and Russia. Following a pilot project, UK-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto started building the world's largest scandium oxide plant at the Fer et Titane production complex in Quebec in January.

"535, an aluminium alloy containing 7pc magnesium, has good corrosion resistance, density advantages and toughness because of its high elongation, meaning it can deform without failure. Adding scandium could increase the yield strength and make it suitable for structural applications," he said. The research is expected to be completed within several months.

"Imperial looks forward to working with Eck as we jointly move towards creation of a vertically integrated North American supply chain for critical mineral and material production using scandium from our Crater Lake deposit," president Peter Cashin said.

By Caroline Messecar