{"id":486278,"date":"2026-02-19T22:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486278\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T22:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:35:26","slug":"rio-tinto-takes-control-of-montreals-nemaska-lithium-amid-critical-minerals-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/486278\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto takes control of Montreal\u2019s Nemaska Lithium amid critical minerals push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A sign indicates construction work on the future site of Nemaska Lithium in B\u00e9cancour, Que., in March 2023.Christinne Muschi\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto Group RIO-N<\/a> has taken control of Montreal-based Nemaska Lithium NMKEF<\/a> as it presses ahead with an expansion of its critical-mineral holdings. <\/p>\n

The Anglo-Australian mining giant and the government of Quebec have each made additional equity investments in Nemaska over the past year, and after a rebalancing of their positions, the company is now the majority shareholder with a 53.9-per-cent stake, it said in a news release. Quebec holds the remainder. <\/p>\n

Rio Tinto said it has now assumed direct management of Nemaska and will capitalize on the lithium miner\u2019s processes and expertise to build an integrated lithium business in Quebec. The two equity partners will continue to fund the project, with Quebec investing up to US$200-million and Rio Tinto committing more than US$300-million this year, according to information made public Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Rio Tinto looks to sell its metal complex in Quebec after G7 investment announcement<\/a><\/p>\n

In Quebec, Rio Tinto is a major mining player, with the province\u2019s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region home to close to half of the company\u2019s global aluminum production. In addition to Nemaska Lithium, it also owns a project called Galaxy that mines for spodumene, a lithium-bearing hard rock.<\/p>\n

The miner had a limited presence in the lithium market until last year, when it closed on the US$6.7-billion takeover<\/a> of Arcadium Lithium PLC. Arcadium has operations in Argentina, Australia, China and Japan and also held the Quebec-based assets that Rio Tinto now controls. <\/p>\n

Executives with Rio Tinto are bullish on lithium as demand increases for stationary energy storage units and electric vehicles, but they\u2019re pulling back on the speed of development of that resource amid uncertainty over supply conditions. Last year, the company mothballed a US$2.3-billion lithium project in Serbia known as Jadar.<\/p>\n

Nemaska Lithium has its own spodumene mine deposit known as Whabouchi, located in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec. It also has a processing plant in B\u00e9cancour, slated to convert spodumene concentrate to lithium hydroxide, which is used for batteries.<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto is now weighing whether Galaxy or Whabouchi offers the more optimal supply for the processing facility. The company expects to start production at B\u00e9cancour in 2028. <\/p>\n

This will be Quebec\u2019s \u201cfinal investment\u201d in Nemaska Lithium, Economy Minister Jean Boulet said in a statement, adding that the project\u2019s development is now secure. Quebec has pumped $1.1-billion into the company since 2020, including the latest sum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A sign indicates construction work on the future site of Nemaska Lithium in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-486278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-science","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}