17 October 2011

5N Plus and Rio Tinto Alcan to discuss development of primary gallium source

5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Canada, a producer and provider of high-purity metals, compounds and wafers for electronic applications, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rio Tinto Alcan, a global provider of bauxite, alumina and aluminium. The MOU will allow 5N Plus and Rio Tinto to pursue discussions regarding a project to recover gallium from an alumina production stream at Rio Tinto Alcan’s Vaudreuil alumina facility in Quebec.

“We are very pleased with the scope of our discussions with Rio Tinto, and have good reason to believe that we will shortly be in a position to develop a new primary source of gallium,” says 5N Plus’ president & CEO Jacques L’Écuyer. “In light of anticipated strong growth in the demand for gallium, this new source will enable us to both strengthen our supply chain and forge a strategic partnership with Rio Tinto,” he adds.

Founded in 2000, 5N Plus currently focuses on specialty high-purity metals such as tellurium, cadmium, selenium, germanium, indium, antimony and bismuth and also produces related II-VI semiconducting compounds such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), cadmium sulphide (CdS) and indium antimonide (InSb) as precursors for the growth of crystals for electronic applications, including solar photovoltaic, radiation detector and infrared markets. 5N Plus owns four material subsidiaries: 5N PV GmbH (Eisenhuttenstadt, Germany), Firebird Technologies Inc (Trail, BC, Canada), 5N Plus Corp (DeForest, WI, USA) and Sylarus Technologies LLC (St George, UT, USA). Also, in April, 5N Plus acquired MCP Group SA of Tilly, Belgium (the world’s leading producer and distributor of bismuth and bismuth chemicals, and a supplier of specialty metals including gallium, indium, selenium and tellurium).

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Tags: 5N Plus Recovered gallium

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