ECO2 Magnesia and 3R Minéral form partnership to produce environmentally friendly magnesium oxide

Thetford Mines, QC-based Mazarin Inc. and its subsidiary, Asbestos Corp., have announce that 3R Minéral Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the latter, has concluded a partnership agreement with ECO2 Magnesia Inc. towards the production of environmentally friendly magnesium oxide in the Chaudière-Appalaches region.

Ultimately, ECO2 Magnesia will represent an investment of nearly $250 million to produce 60,000 tons of magnesium oxide per year.

3R Minéral, an ore processing company known for its ability to safely decontaminate and market tailings, will supply the raw material to ECO2 Magnesia. ECO2 Magnesia, specialized in the ecological manufacturing of magnesium oxide, will make it possible to transform, revalorize and market these mine tailings, pretreated by 3R, into a magnesium oxide of the highest purity.

Invented in Quebec, ECO2 Magnesia’s technology is to include the capture of CO2 within its process. In this way, ECO2 Magnesia is said to produce an ultrapure MgO while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions, a first for the industry. Aligned with the principles of the circular economy, the ECO2 project will decontaminate up to 480,000 tons of mine tailings annually to transform it into MgO, a critical and strategic ore identified in the Plan québécois pour la valorisation des minéraux critiques et stratégiques 2020-2025.

“The ECO2 project is a winner on all fronts: it will offer a new economic breath to the Chaudière-Appalaches region, give a second life to mine tailings and decontaminate the environment using a 100% ecological process,” says Paul Boudreault, director of ECO2 Magnesia and president of SIGMA Devtech.

“The ECO2 project is the embodiment of a new era of ecological industrialization and will create a new green economic hub in the region.”

The ECO2 Magnesia plant will be in the Chaudière-Appalaches region on the former Carey mine site. The project will be deployed in modular phases, with the first operational phase to produce 20,000 tons of MgO per year scheduled for 2024.