WA charts global green steel opportunity with renewables and iron ore

A new report highlights the potential for Western Australia use its abundant renewable energy resources to become a major player in the world’s rapidly growing green steel supply chain.

Led by the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA), the Western Australia’s Green Steel Opportunity report was published on Monday by the WA government.

The report highlights how the state’s abundant and low-cost clean energy could lead to the supply of high-grade iron feedstock products to steelmakers.

Already a leading supplier of iron ore resources to the global steel industry for over 60 years, Western Australia has also recently made huge strides in building an industrial sector backed by renewable energy generation.

The report therefore maps out five pathways Western Australian iron ore can be used to reduce emissions from steelmaking.

“Our state’s abundant renewable energy resources alongside our world-leading iron ore industry puts WA front and centre in the global push towards green steel,” said Roger Cook, Western Australia’s new premier and minister for industry development.

“Moving up the green steel value chain will diversify our economy and create more local jobs right across the State.

“This report delivers on an important election commitment and will help to position Western Australia as an investment destination for low-emissions steel opportunities.”

The five pathways identified in the report includes the export of hematite and magnetite concentrate from Western Australian mines powered by renewable energy. Such a transition to green iron ore mining would reduce emissions by 0.07 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2) per tonne of steel produced.

A second pathway would expand Western Australia’s existing operations to deliver a new product, green pellets, which would be made using renewable hydrogen and could be used in iron and steelmaking technologies. According to the report, the use of green pellets in steelmaking could result in an emissions reduction of 0.12tCO2 per tonne of steel produced.

Third and fourth pathways envisioned in the report would build on the production of green pellets and add yet another product to the list of WA’s exportable products. In this case, green pellets could be used to produce hot briquetted iron (HBI) for use in steelmaking, using either green pellets made from fossil fuels or renewable hydrogen.

The fifth and natural endgame for any such set of pathways is the possibility of creating a domestic industry to produce green steel backed by full renewable energy solutions.

However, as it stands, the “levelised costs of green steel compared to fossil fuel steel is significantly higher” and would require “lowering the hydrogen production costs and the renewable power price to be competitive.”

However, the potential financial benefits to Western Australia in particular, and to Australia as a whole, are significant, and bolsters the state’s efforts to decarbonise its industry sector and build a nation- and world-leading clean energy sector.

“As demonstrated in the report, a small scale 4.8 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) vertically integrated magnetite HBI plant in the Pilbara generates taxation benefits in the order of $31.7 billion to Australians during construction and operations through to 2050,” said Bill Johnston, WA’s minister for mines and petroleum.

“It is estimated that the 4.8Mtpa plant would increase employment in the Western Australian iron ore sector by 1,700 full-time employees.

“The Cook government now has a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing the steel industry in its decarbonisation efforts and opportunities for future value adding of iron ore in Western Australia.”