By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian aluminium producer Rusal said on Thursday it is setting up a 1.5 tonne-a-year production facility for the rare-earth metal scandium, with the capacity to increase to 19 metric tonnes a year.
The announcement came days after President Vladimir Putin called for Russia to step up its output of rare-earth metals, and as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to sign a deal with Ukraine on tapping mineral reserves that can be used in a wide range of sectors from defence to consumer electronics.
Investment in the project will amount to 500 million roubles ($5.73 million), Rusal said in a statement. Production will start this year at its Bogoslovsky Aluminium Plant, located near the Urals Mountains.
Scandium is used as an alloying agent with aluminium, providing alloys with such qualities as 10-15% weight reduction, higher strength and resistance to thermal shock.
The alloys could be used in shipbuilding and aviation, both civilian and military. The Soviet Union used scandium for MIG fighter jets as early as the 1980s.
Rusal said that it could be used in production of railway cars and 3D printing of high-tech prosthetics.
Rusal estimated global production of scandium oxide, the main form of the metal, at only 20-25 tons per year. The company said it will make scandium oxide from red mud, a by-product of alumina production, using technology it has developed.
Other international producers, including Rio Tinto, extract scandium oxide from the titanium processing stream.
Russia has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earth metals and aims to become one of the top five rare earth metals producers with up to 12% of global market share by 2030.
Putin has offered the U.S. the opportunity under a future economic deal to jointly explore Russia’s rare earth metal deposits. He also offered the U.S. to supply up to 2 million tons of aluminium.
($1 = 87.2000 roubles)
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
