Expert expects environmental, economic benefits from potential alumina mine in Sask.

An expert from the University of Regina’s Department of Earth Sciences agrees a potential alumina mine could have environmental advantages.

Canadian Energy Metals says its Thor Project, located near Tisdale, has the potential for long-term development, an announcement it celebrated at a news conference in Saskatoon Friday. Alumina is an oxide which the company says can be processed into aluminum, and it has other industrial uses as well.

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“The process of making aluminum metal is really energy intensive, and that’s part of why we do it here in Canada, because we have abundant hydroelectric power,” assistant professor Dr. Joyce McBeth said an in interview.

“We have the capacity in terms of energy to be able to melt aluminum, where some countries might not have that capability.”

If aluminum could be made by processing a locally-found material instead of imported ore, she said that could mean a smaller environmental footprint.

“Generating aluminum requires import of the raw materials, so the bauxite ore or alumina, that’s generated elsewhere and then imported, and so there’s going to be some kind of environmental impact from that shipment,” McBeth explained.

“So that part would be removed from the equation, but then you would have to transport the raw materials across the country to a smelter, unless you’re building one locally.”

McBeth said it’s not clear just yet what the company’s plans include, though she understands why the private company that owns the project would be keeping its cards close to its chest.

“Any time you have an industrial process that is valuable and has potential to kind of revolutionize things – and this might – then there’s going to be some intellectual property considerations, and they want to protect their intellectual property,” she said.

“And then another reason why they might not have shared all the details yet is they still need to scale up this process.”

But even with the limited details, she sees an economic upside.

“Having a local source of a raw material is always a plus, I’d say. And then, also, we need to think about jobs,” McBeth said. “If they’re able to develop this, even in this demonstrative part of the process, they’re going to be employing people.

“And speaking from an academic point of view, (it’s) exciting to have new technologies being developed locally that might inspire others to develop similar projects elsewhere in the country or even abroad.”