“RTIT Managing Director Stéphane Leblanc said: “Rio Tinto is...

“RTIT Managing Director Stéphane Leblanc said: “Rio Tinto is exploring new, sustainable ways to extract battery materials for the energy transition. We are seeing strong interest in the market for a North American supply of spodumene concentrate to support production of lithium batteries. Our demonstration plant will allow us to further validate the innovative spodumene concentration process developed at our Critical Minerals and Technology Centre as we consider moving to commercial scale production.”

The demonstration plant was commissioned in June after successful laboratory testing of the new process and produced its first ton of spodumene concentrate in July 2022. It will test ore from various local suppliers including Sayona, an emerging lithium producer with projects in Québec and Western Australia.”

https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/releases/2022/rio-tinto-starts-demonstration-plant-for-lithium-concentration-in-quebec

So far Rio has really only dabbled at the edges when it comes to lithium.

When they decide to get serious, they will do a whole lot more than just acquiring explorers.

They, (like BHP) have the capacity to swallow fully developed projects in prime locations.

Whether Rio would be interested in NAL is yet to be seen but at least they are aware of it.

Perhaps Moblan would be more to their liking when it’s full potential is realised?