From Discovery to Deployment: Inside AnorTech’s Alumina Strategy
AnorTech approaches commercialisation of its sustainable alumina technology
AnorTech’s 13-year effort to develop a sustainable alumina technology reached an important inflection point at the ICSOBA 2025 conference, where the company held productive discussions with major alumina and aluminum producers. CEO Jim Cambon says these promising developments show how far the company has come in proving its proprietary approach.
“AnorTech is ready to turn its innovative technology into a sustainable solution for the alumina and aluminum industries and value chains,” says Cambon. “We have not only been working on producing high-purity alumina (HPA) but also refining our process to produce waste-free, smelter-grade alumina (SGA) from our anorthosite resource at Grønne Bjerg in Greenland.
A cleaner alternative to bauxite
AnorTech’s goal has always been clear: to offer the aluminum industry a cleaner, zero-waste feedstock alternative to bauxite. Cambon explains that by producing alumina directly from anorthosite, the company’s process eliminates red-mud tailings, one of the most persistent waste-management issues in the global aluminum sector.
Its sustainable alumina process also enables multiple applications across the aluminum value chain, opening markets that extend beyond traditional commodity alumina. “Our vision is to position ourselves as both a technology provider and a resource company offering several product lines,” says Cambon.
From early discovery to proven technology
Cambon, whose career includes over two decades evaluating and building projects in Greenland, recalls the company’s early discovery of a high-purity anorthosite body in the country more than a decade ago.
“Thirteen years ago, we identified a large resource of aluminum-calcium-silicate anorthosite at Grønne Bjerg,” he says. “This unique rock has a wide range of commercial uses, from E-glass and coatings to alumina and CO₂-free refractory cements.”
In studying historical research, the team learned that several major aluminum companies had pursued alumina-from-anorthosite technologies over five decades ago. AnorTech picked up where these efforts left off, combining expired patents, modern process engineering, and readily available technologies to create a proprietary, low-impact flowsheet with valuable byproducts.
Logistics and carbon advantages
Another advantage of the project, Cambon notes, is location.
“Bauxite is usually shipped from tropical regions in the southern hemisphere to refineries in the north,” he explains. By contrast, Greenland is geographically well positioned, roughly the same shipping distance to Western Europe, Canada and the eastern United States. This can reduce transportation emissions and simplify logistics for alumina producers.
Supporting a low-carbon aluminum industry
AnorTech believes its waste-free alumina products could make a meaningful contribution to the efforts underway in aluminum smelting and downstream processing to reduce environmental impact. While much of the industry’s current decarbonization focus is on improving the smelting process, Cambon says the smelter grade alumina feedstock itself is becoming an increasingly important part of the solution.
The company is also targeting markets outside traditional smelting. Its flowsheet produces aluminum trihydrate (ATH), a valuable material used in water treatment and fire-retardant applications. Meanwhile, its work on CO₂-free refractory cement shows potential to expand the technology’s relevance beyond metals and into broader industrial sectors.
The high-purity alumina work that initially guided AnorTech’s research continues to open doors, especially in advanced materials, including aerospace, defence applications, and sapphire for semiconductors.
Pathway to commercialization
Cambon emphasizes that AnorTech has established a strong foundation with over two decades operating in Greenland and 13 years conducting R&D on anorthosite. The company is now focused on bringing its process to market through industry partnerships.
“We are having discussions with major players in the market with regard to participating in both pilot testing and research and development to advance our product lines to commercialization,” he says.
The next major milestone will be a six-week pilot plant program, designed to produce commercial-scale samples of both SGA and HPA, as well as the saleable by-products. These materials will undergo engineering tests, customer evaluations, and ultimately feed into updated engineering studies. “In conjunction with our research and development programs, we are advancing the Grønne Bjerg anorthosite project with the objective of submitting an application for an exploitation permit in the next 18 months,” he adds.
Cambon expects that commercialisation could follow within six to twelve months of completing the pilot plant program.
A defining stage
For Cambon, AnorTech has reached a pivotal stage after years of steady development. “We’re moving from long-term development to commercial deployment,” he says — a transition with the potential to materially reduce the environmental impact of alumina-based applications and signal a new, more sustainable direction for the aluminum value chain.
ENDS