Rio Tinto units fined $3.2M for Quebec water pollution; Ottawa later signed $32.6M in research deals

Two Quebec subsidiaries of mining giant Rio Tinto have pleaded guilty four times since 2018 to releasing harmful substances into waters frequented by fish, federal enforcement records show, with fines totalling $3.2 million. In March 2026, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) signed contribution agreements worth up to $32.6 million with the same two companies.

The convictions, all under the pollution-prevention section of the Fisheries Act, are listed in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Environmental Offenders Registry.

The largest came in January 2025, when Rio Tinto Fer et Titane pleaded guilty to eight counts at the Sept-Îles courthouse and was fined $2 million, the third-largest fine recorded in Quebec in the federal registry. According to ECCC, effluent from its Lake Tio mine near Havre-Saint-Pierre carried excess nickel in February 2023 after electrical cables were accidentally cut, and effluent with low pH, which is harmful to fish, flowed toward Lake Petit Pas in July and August 2023. ECCC said that effluent was not treated at the time.

The same company was fined $600,000 in June 2023 over two 2020 spills at its Sorel-Tracy complex: 1,314 litres of caustic soda that reached the plant’s effluent, and 7,000 litres of hydrochloric acid that entered a stormwater system draining to the St. Lawrence River. ECCC says the company reported the first spill the same day.

Rio Tinto Alcan, which runs the Arvida aluminium and alumina plants in Saguenay, pleaded guilty in 2018 over 1,700 litres of acid released into the Saguenay River during boiler cleaning, and again in 2023 over 351 cubic metres of acidic water released after a boiler failure. It was fined $100,000 and $500,000. All the fines go to the federal Environmental Damages Fund.

Rio Tinto did not respond to questions sent Oct. 27 by the Nov. 2 deadline.

Federal grant records show NRCan signed a $13.6-million contribution agreement with Rio Tinto Fer et Titane on March 30, 2026 for a titanium metal extraction demonstration plant at Sorel-Tracy, and an $18.95-million agreement with Rio Tinto Alcan on March 25, 2026 for gallium extraction research in Saguenay. Both run to March 2028 and are part of Ottawa’s critical-minerals strategy.

NRCan also did not respond by the deadline.

There is no indication the funding breaks any rule, and the grants pay for research rather than the operations where the spills happened. Several of the incidents were accidents. The registry lists only federal convictions.

How we did this. Canada News Media downloaded ECCC’s Environmental Offenders Registry on Oct. 23, 2026, selected every conviction of a company with “Rio Tinto” in its name, and read each ECCC enforcement notice. Grant figures come from the Government of Canada’s proactive disclosure of grants and contributions, searched Oct. 27, 2026.

Sources: Environmental Offenders Registry; ECCC notices from 2018, June 2023, September 2023 and January 2025; Proactive disclosure of grants and contributions.

With reporting by a Canada News Media contributor.

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