Industry committee  The topic is extremely important for us as well. Our interests are basically aligned with yours in ensuring that the project is a success.

Industry committee  Rio Tinto has invested $5.5 billion in Canada since 2018. We invest approximately $650 million in Quebec every year. In Canada, in 2023, Rio Tinto spent $2.2 billion on aluminum production in Quebec, and those investments are slowly growing. So those amounts are really significant.

Industry committee  I'm not sure we'd disclose market share. Today, if you look at the North American market, which is the most relevant market for the production of our Canadian aluminum, we are probably, under the control of my team, the largest producer, competing with imports primarily from the Middle East and competing with Alcoa, which is our partner on ELYSIS, and with a handful of other American producers.

Industry committee  We probably have at least two more successive phases of piloting the technologies before we can think about industrial deployment.

Industry committee  In dollars, the order of magnitude will be in the many hundreds of millions. It's not many tens and it's not many billions.

Industry committee  I think it was up to 1,000 jobs. I'm not sure what “up to” means, but I would qualify them as ballpark figures. Given that there are still so many unknowns about the deployment of this technology, I am reasonably uncomfortable about articulating exact numbers.

Industry committee  I will tell you. For your full information, AP60 will progressively take over production from the production line called “Arvida”, which has been in operation for close to 100 years. It will be progressively shut down. We are retraining the people from the Arvida line, most of them, on AP60.

Industry committee  I need time to come back to you on that. Clearly our intention is to do it in Saguenay. We at Rio Tinto also have smelters elsewhere in the world, so I don't think we are prevented from developing and using the technology elsewhere in the world in our smelters. Clearly—

Industry committee  [Inaudible—Editor] our ability to source from Quebec, to use local suppliers.

Industry committee  I don't think the agreement prevents us from using our IP for Rio Tinto in places other than Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean. This technology, if successful, will have global development. The reality is, Saguenay represents 60% of our aluminum production today. It's the most competitive place, so that's where we want to start it.

Industry committee  Also, we're in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean because we have access to competitive hydro power due to our whole operation, which would be very difficult to delocalize.

Industry committee  I get it. We'll get back to you on that.

Industry committee  I don't see why it wouldn't be.

Industry committee  We don't have any specific plan to do that, but we sell our aluminum in Canada, and we'll sell aluminum produced using ELYSIS in Canada as well. Once again, your question kind of puts me on the spot because it raises two more questions: how much will it cost us to produce aluminum using ELYSIS technology, and how much will we sell it for?

Industry committee  We haven't made any announcements about that either, but it would be logical to produce anodes in Quebec, as carbon anodes currently are. It would be easier from the standpoint of logistics and security of supply, and it would also help allay certain concerns that have previously been raised.