Rio Tinto Alcan has received a C$175 million ($150 million) loan from the Quebec provincial government to continue construction of a state-of-the-art AP50 pilot plant in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Montreal-based Alcan is constructing the first phase of an AP50 demonstration plant, which will have 44 aluminum smelting pots with initial annual production of 60,000 tons.

The company could eventually spend approximately $2.5 billion to build a 200,000-tonne-per-year AP50 smelter.

The AP technology was acquired when Pechiney SA was purchased by Alcan Inc. in 2004. The numbers after AP refer to the amperage, meaning the newest version uses 500 kiloamps. Rio Tinto's current standard is AP30.

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