Australia’s biggest iron ore producer Rio Tinto will bankroll a $215 million research facility in the heart of Rockingham’s industrial area in a bid to decarbonise the steelmaking process drastically.
The facility will trial using raw biomass and microwave energy, instead of coal, to convert Pilbara iron ore to metallic iron. The mining giant claims it has the capacity to reduce the process’ carbon emissions by up to 95 per cent.
Simon Trott, chief executive of Rio Tinto iron ore, at the Rhodes Ridge deposit in the Pilbara.
The low-carbon ironmaking process, branded BioIron, is the product of a decade-long in-house research initiative by the mining giant’s engineers.
The Anglo-Australian company’s investment pledge follows successful trials in a pilot plant in Germany and comes amid growing global demand for “green” steel.
The plant, earmarked for the Rockingham strategic industrial area south of Perth, will be ten times the size of the European pilot and capable of producing one tonne of direct reduced iron per hour.
In unveiling the plans in Rockingham on Tuesday, Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott said the mining giant needed to do its part.
Steelmaking accounts for almost 70 per cent of Rio Tinto’s Scope 3 emissions, Scope 3 being the name given to emissions in a company’s value chain that while not created by its primary activity, it nonetheless remains accountable for to some degree.
“The steel industry currently produces around 8 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions, and that needs to change – and this facility could be a key component in driving that change,” Trott said.
“Rio Tinto has been privileged to be in the Pilbara for decades, and we intend to be here for decades more, so we need to do the work to make sure Pilbara iron ore is well positioned for green steel.