Rio Tinto and global steelmaker China Baowu have completed a major technical milestone, finalising industrial-scale trials that could pave the way for low-carbon steel production using Western Australia’s standard iron ore.
The breakthrough trials, conducted at China Baowu’s Baoshan Iron & Steel Zhanjiang Operations, demonstrated for the first time that typical mid-grade ores mined in WA’s Pilbara region can be successfully used as feedstock in a hydrogen-based direct reduction process.
Traditionally, hydrogen direct reduction technology requires premium, high-grade iron ore, which is in limited global supply.
This trial marks a shift by proving that widely available Pilbara Blend iron ore can play a vital role in reducing the steel industry’s heavy carbon footprint.
During the industrial-scale trial, a one-million-tonne-per-year hydrogen-based shaft furnace was used to produce direct reduced iron (DRI) from pellets containing one-third Pilbara Blend ore.
The resulting material was then successfully converted into steel using an industrial basic oxygen furnace and additionally validated in a small-scale electric smelting furnace.
Rio Tinto Vice President of Iron Ore Sales and Marketing, Ramona Sim, hailed the successful campaign as an important step toward curbing steelmaking emissions.
“This is an important technical milestone demonstrating that Pilbara Blend iron ore can be used in a direct reduction shaft furnace process at an industrial scale, which has the potential to significantly reduce emissions when compared with the traditional blast furnace,” Sim said.
Baowu Low Carbon Centre Executive Deputy Director and Baowu Central Research Institute Deputy Director Mao Xiaoming said: “The successful industrial-scale trials help both parties advance understanding in lower-emissions iron and steel making technologies.”
The trial delivers on a key objective from a 2023 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Rio Tinto and China Baowu, who share a technical partnership spanning more than 50 years.
The companies have been progressing a multi-phase decarbonisation partnership since 2020.
While further testing is required to increase the proportion of mid-grade ore in the blend, the successful trial provides a scalable blueprint to help future-proof Australia’s multi-billion-dollar iron ore export industry in a decarbonising global market.
