Clean Quebec aluminum for Apple

Aluminium ingots. © Apple.

This month, Apple will be receiving its first delivery of “clean” aluminum, produced by Elysis, a Montreal-based joint venture between aluminum producer Alcoa and mining company Rio Tinto. The metal comes from Alcoa’s labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it will be used to build unspecified Apple products. In May 2018, Alcoa, Rio Tinto, Apple and the Canadian and Quebec governments invested 188 million dollars in a zero-carbon aluminum smelting process. While the prototype aluminum ingots were produced in the U.S., large-scale production will take place in Saguenay, in Quebec, by the end of next year. Apple, which uses quite a bit of aluminum in its products, is going “green”; for example, the Mac Mini and MacBook Air cases are entirely made out of aluminum recovered from old machines.

⇨ Mac Rumors, Joe Rossignol, “Apple begins buying aluminum made with carbon-free process, plans to use in select products.”