Rio Tinto Minerals, the world leader in borate supply and science, and Luzenac, the world’s foremost talc producer, have been brought under common management to form Rio Tinto Minerals (RTM). Combining these businesses’ resource base, expertise and infrastructure supports global market growth, with a particular focus on developing economies where demand for high-quality industrial minerals is rising. Rio Tinto Minerals will preserve brand equity developed over centuries by continuing to market its products under the existing brands – Luzenac talcs and Twenty Mule Team® borates.  Furthermore, RTM believes this common management will further increase our presence in the pulp and paper industry and provide greater services to our existing and future customers.

Partial borate autocausticizing has been developed and implemented in pulp mills worldwide to supplement the conventional lime causticizing with almost no capital investment. The technology is used to either increase the causticizing capacity and white liquor production or decrease the lime causticizing load and lime usage.