Port Hedland green iron plant to be built by South Korea’s POSCO wins tick from WA environment umpire

WA’s environmental adjudicator has recommended a lower-carbon steel plant proposed by South Korea’s Posco in Port Hedland be approved, marking a step forward for the State’s green metal ambitions. The Environmental Protection Authority on Monday delivered a positive verdict on the plant which proposes to turn iron ore into steelmaking precursor pellets and hot briquette iron by using a natural gas-powered furnace instead of coking coal. EPA chair Darren Walsh determined the project’s locale in the Boodarie strategic industrial area made the proposal more energy efficient and could also eventually be an “enabler” for renewable hydrogen. How much hydrogen is used in the process will depend on its commercial viability, an area proving difficult for many companies to firm up. The project is being taken forward by Posco, Japanese trading house Marubeni and Taiwanese steelmaker China Steel Corporation. The proponents welcomed the release of the report and were encouraged by commentary from the EPA that their proposed technology represented “good environmental practice”. “The Pilbara-based project has exciting potential and the completion of the assessment by the EPA is an important step towards a final investment decision by the project partners,” a project spokesman said. Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting — a major producer of iron ore in the region — and Posco signed a deal to co-operate on the downstream project in 2022. The EPA’s report will be available for public comment for three weeks, with the State’s Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn then set to make the final call. Located 10km south-west of Port Hedland, the project would also be in the neighbourhood of iron ore majors BHP, Rio Tinto and Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue. All three are figuring out how their iron ore can be processed with fewer emissions. Fortescue is scheduled to start production from its hydrogen-powered green iron plant in Christmas Creek imminently. Meanwhile Rio Tinto and BHP are working with Australian steelmaker Bluescope Steel on a low-emissions iron smelting pilot plant in Kwinana. It’s understood testing is underway for the proposed Port Hedland project to determine what the most suitable feedstock ore would be, with results anticipated by the middle of next year. Going off original plans filed with the EPA, the operation would convert between three million tonnes and 3.5Mt of iron ore a year into pellets. Most of those would be fed into the hot briquette iron plant to produce about 2Mtpa of product. The remainder would be shipped out for export as pellets. Despite being built in the name of decarbonisation, its likely annual carbon dioxide emissions are above the Federal Government’s 100,000 tonne-a-year limit set by the safeguard mechanism. The build — originally scheduled to start this year — would take about two and a half years. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA last year raised concerns about the preparedness of strategic industrial areas in WA. It argued that these sites — naming Boodarie specifically — needed to be ‘turnkey ready’ for companies and new projects. This included making sure any roads, rail, cultural heritage permits, electricity, seaports and water utilities were in place. Posco’s proposal also included a 466ha “infrastructure development envelope” allowing routes for roads and drainage and to allow connection with potential third-party suppliers of gas and water.