Three major aluminium giants, Capral, Rio Tinto and Sims Metals, have successfully collaborated to have a closed-loop aluminium recycling plant in Queensland, Australia, giving tribute to the "Made in Australia" gesture.
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Image source: capral.com.au
In this collaboration, Capral's Bremer Park facility will provide post-production aluminium scrap, which will be further sorted and processed by Sims Metal and later be delivered to Rio Tinto's Boyne Smelter in Gladstone for remelting.
These scraps are estimated to produce more than 1,000 tonnes of aluminium, with the recycled content being at 20 per cent, and then would be supplied back to Capral's Bremer Park manufacturing site located in Southeast Queensland to indulge in extrusion operations, aiding in establishing a recycling solution domestically.
Tony Dragicevich, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Capral, have stated, "This project represents a practical step forward for Capral in reducing our operational emissions and increasing the recycled content of the aluminium we use. Building on our successful 2024 trial with Rio Tinto, working together enables us to offer our customers extruded aluminium options that support circularity, strengthen local supply chains, and reinforce the role of Australian manufacturing in a low-carbon future."
Back in 2024, an initial collaboration between the three giants came into being where Capral had felicitously trailed billets which contain recycled content of nearly 20 per cent, which Rio Tinto had previously produced in its Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL). In this collaboration, the feasibility of producing high-quality aluminium products by using recycled content within a local supply chain also surfaced.
With expansion of the same collaboration, Rio Tinto and Capral will an extensive use of the expertise shared by Sims Metals for conducting scrap processing and sorting aluminium, supporting to deliver improved production efficiencies, enabling larger volumes of scrap to be remelted in the BSL facility, resulting to increased scalability whilst agreeing to the maintained recycled content percentages.
In this process, the aluminium will be entirely a part of the local Queensland supply chain, where Rio Tinto will mine the bauxite in Weipa. The further steps include refining the bauxite into alumina and smelting it to produce aluminium, which will take place in Gladstone and be sent for extrusion by Capral in the Bremer Park facility. This does not enlarge the domestic manufacturing capabilities, but also aids in sustainable aluminium resource use.
David Burrows, Chief Commercial Officer at Sims Metal, commented, "Sims Metal is excited to collaborate with Rio Tinto and Capral to provide more recycled metal content into domestic aluminium manufacturing. Using more recycled aluminium in the manufacturing process is an immediate way the industry can continue to decarbonise and at the same time strengthen local aluminium supply chains."
This approach by the three aluminium companies will underpin commercially viable onshore recycling of aluminium in Australia and will further contribute towards reducing emissions associated with aluminium production. It will also help Capral lower its Scope 3 emissions while offering customers across various Australian manufacturing sectors, such as construction, marine, transport, renewable energy and general fabrication products that support their sustainability objectives.
Armando Torres, Managing Director of Rio Tinto Pacific Operations Aluminium, has demonstrated, "We are pleased to collaborate with SIMS Metal and Capral to pioneer and scale an onshore closed-loop aluminium recycling solution that is driven by the needs of the market and our customer, Capral. The advancements achieved through successful trials are testament to the partnering technical teams' innovation, and demonstrate the feasibility of locally sourced and recycled aluminium supply chains in Australia."
As of now, this agreement forms part of the broader sustainability efforts by Rio Tinto, Sims Metal and Capral aimed at enhancing resource efficiency and minimising the environmental footprint of aluminium production.
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