Rio Tinto adds $2.9 million tellurium recovery circuit at Utah’s Kennecott to produce about 20 tons a year
AI Market Summary
Rio Tinto's $2.9M tellurium recovery circuit at its Kennecott copper refinery adds ~20 tons/year of byproduct tellurium, feeding North American thin-film solar supply chains amid China's dominance in refined tellurium and export licensing. The initiative marginally improves operational decarbonization via a 30MW solar buildout, but the output is too small to shift global tellurium markets; it mainly reduces supply-chain risk for downstream users.
Impact level
● Low
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AI Insight · NCCO724COPPER2USD/USDTAI Insight
● Neutral
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Rio Tinto has invested $2.9 million to add a tellurium recovery circuit at its Kennecott copper refinery in Utah, aiming to produce about 20 tons of tellurium a year from byproducts. The tellurium has been used in more than 71,000 thin-film solar modules at a nearby 25-megawatt solar plant that has been supplying power since December 2025. About 90% of the world’s tellurium is contained in copper ore, and the project is intended to provide a domestic tellurium supply for the U.S. solar industry.
