Rio Tinto Alcan is a Canada-based mining company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, it is a subsidiary of global mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan.
The company is the global leader of aluminium mining and production, above its one time parent Alcoa (from which it split in 1928), Rusal, and some Chinese public companies.
History
Founded in 1902 as the Canadian unit of Alcoa, it was spun off in 1928. R. E. Powell left Alcoa to become Vice President of the Aluminium Company of Canada (later Alcan) in Montreal, was President from 1937 to 1957 and was then Chancellor of McGill University from 1957 to 1964.
Alcan has gone through several name changes: