SOREL-TRACY, Que. — Ottawa will make investments $222 million to assist a Quebec firm improve manufacturing of essential minerals for items reminiscent of electrical automobiles and batteries whereas concurrently slicing emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Tuesday.

It is a part of a $737-million plan from Rio Tinto over eight years to decarbonize its Rio Tinto Fer et Titane operations in Sorel-Tracy, Que., and increase its manufacturing of essential minerals reminiscent of lithium, scandium and titanium.

Trudeau made the announcement after visiting the power, about 90 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

“At the moment’s announcement with Rio Tinto will create jobs and place Canada as a frontrunner within the essential minerals that go into issues like electrical autos for our net-zero future,” Trudeau instructed a information convention.

The cash, he stated, will come by way of the Strategic Innovation Fund and assist the plant in central Quebec reduce its emissions in half by 2030 by electrifying furnaces and slicing out coal.

Jakob Stausholm, Rio Tinto’s CEO, stated the funding would assist strengthen North American essential mineral manufacturing at a time when world tensions spotlight the necessity for safe provides.

He gave the instance of scandium, a mineral that he stated was beforehand produced virtually completely in Russia and China, however is now being produced in Quebec.

He stated essential minerals are additionally necessary to a number of sectors that play key roles in addressing local weather change — together with electrical autos, 3D printing and aerospace.

“Important minerals are merely a requirement with the intention to change the world’s vitality system,” he stated.

The federal authorities stated in a information launch that its funding will create as much as 150 jobs on the firm.

It provides that the funding will assist home and overseas clear know-how provide chains and assist make Canada the “world provider of alternative” for the essential minerals and supplies wanted for the inexperienced, digital world financial system.

Earlier, Trudeau donned a security hat and glasses as he toured an illustration plant that can check new smelting know-how aimed toward decreasing emissions. The venture, known as BlueSmelting, works by breaking down minerals on the molecular degree earlier than they’re melted, decreasing the quantity of coal required, in response to Caroline Bureau, the corporate’s govt director of engineering and contractor administration.

The corporate stated in a information launch that the venture, whether it is ever totally carried out and expanded, has the potential to cut back the greenhouse fuel emissions at Rio Tinto’s Sorel-Tracy operation by as much as 70 per cent.