Forrest shows off Fortescue’s green goods

A whisper-quiet hydrogen haul truck, a good old red-dirt sod turning for a green iron plant, and visible proof ore can be dug and carted without emitting any carbon: it was a big day for Andrew Forrest and the Fortescue team at Christmas Creek on Friday.

And it came with a pointed message to those questioning Fortescue’s ability to deliver on its real zero emissions by 2030 ambition, a point at which Mr Forrest insists he will personally turn off any company equipment still running on diesel or gas.

“If you say you can't do it, then I agree you can't,” Mr Forrest said.

“Get off the stage and let on some punk who can and will.”

Jetting off from cold, dark Perth at 4am, the bleary-eyed press pack arrived to a mild and sunny Pilbara day to see first hand the fruits of Fortescue’s real-zero labour in action.

On hand for the tour were the Fortescue chairman, Mr Forrest, chief executive Dino Otranto, and a host of the company’s on-the-ground leaders in the real-zero game.

Mr Forrest’s mood could best be described as that of a proud father.

He regaled the gathered crowd with tales at each stop on the tour of Fortescue’s big real-zero projects at the iron ore mine in the Chichester Hub.

“Look at my truck,” he exclaimed with joy as the hydrogen-powered Europa haul truck sat, backlit by the outback sun on the red dirt.

That remark came following an anecdote about the US military claiming it was not possible yet to convert tanks to green power.

Andrew Forrest and Sinead Booth infront of the Europa hydrogen haul truck. Photo: Tom Zaunmayr

Mr Forrest politely noted his haul trucks were significantly larger and heavier, and he has had no problem doing so, as evidenced by the one he was pointing at as he made the above remark.

The billionaire founder of Fortescue took the truck for a spin himself, of course, remarking being behind the wheel was like “riding a young horse”, such was the get-up-and-go of the thing.

Of more relevance to Fortescue and the industry is the fact the Liebherr truck can run for 10 to 12 hours, the same as a diesel engine, meaning no need to disrupt schedules as well as technology.

Prior to the Europa’s grand entry the pack had been shown around a barren patch of dirt which by this time next year will be churning out green iron to ship to China, according to Fortescue, 1,500 tonnes of it per year to start with.

Mr Otranto was both energetic and foreboding when asked about the need for such a plant.

“Green iron is the next commodity boom of Australia, because we're putting together the sun and the wind with the iron ore that we're standing on top of,” Mr Otranto said.

“We have recently come back from Asia where it is clear our steel mills want a green product, so the transformation is already underway.

“All I ask is that our government, and us as industrialists, come together, appreciate what's going on and for Australia, do not miss this opportunity, because the market will not wait for us.”

Mr Otranto said a sustainable green iron market into China was viable through the “ebbs and flows” of commodity markets.

“If we had this built today we could sell all of that today in the steel mills,” he said.

Sod turning for Fortescue's green iron production plant at Christmas Creek. Photo: Tom Zaunmayr

As it turned out, Mr Forrest had flown in from China on another of his regular trips to talk to delegates there about the pressing need to end dirty iron ore production.

“Customers are saying … we want to see that bridge built, we want a school built, we want a home built, but we don't want it with energy and metal which is going to destroy our planet,” he said.

“As the … slow-minded politicians or corporate leaders get the bulletproof evidence that climate change is hard upon us and is accelerating, and while they do nothing about it, they're in dereliction of their very duties, it will be left to people like us to prove it can be done.”

The Roadrunner

The icing on the cake was at the bottom of the Windich test pit, where a hydrogen-powered Liebherr excavator fueled by a moveable hydrogen power station dutifully scooped up some piles of rocks to dump in the back of Roadrunner, Fortescue’s highly touted battery electric haul truck, which has been put through its paces on site for the past year.

We counted at least three calls for applause during the show.

Seeing the two green machines work together was a moment Mr Forrest described as akin to “breaking open the cartel of the Pilbara” when Fortescue produced its first ore from Cloudbreak in 2007.

“I just remember that feeling that the world had changed now there was a huge new supplier of iron ore, which was going to hit the steel markets of the world, it was going to provide tens of thousands of jobs opportunities,” he said.

“What you are watching now is an absolute repeat of that moment to see a hydrogen fuel-powered mobile power station making sure these huge diggers can run without a molecule carbon being emitted, charging those huge trucks.

“Everything which we will need in the future will spring in transport from what you are seeing now.

“This is simplicity, this is the future, this is what I'm really proud that Fortescue is pioneering.”

For those questioning how long it takes to charge the truck, the answer is 25 minutes.

And it lasts 10 to 12 hours.

Fortescue's hydrogen excavator and battery electric haul truck in operation at Christmas Creek. Picture: Tom Zaunmayr.

Key to Christmas Creek’s real-zero push is the mobile power stations fed by a central hydrogen refueling plant, which itself is enabled by a 60-megawatt solar farm.

It also fuels the hydrogen buses that carted guests around.

Fortescue hydrogen operations superintendent Derren Bessen said the mobile plants could be moved anywhere in the mine with haste and fuelled with hydrogen to keep diggers operating.

Mr Bessen said Fortescue’s plant had capacity to cater for significantly more hydrogen that it was currently producing and could have further gas trains added when demand required.

Powering one mine is one thing, but Fortescue has a whole host of them in the Pilbara and little visibly to show yet in terms of the vast green energy fields needed to power them.

“We are working right now on installing … two to three gigawatts of renewable energy right here in the Pilbara that provides those green electrons,” Fortescue head of decarbonisation Sinead Booth said.

“We are going to back that up with extremely large amounts of battery storage across this location.

“We are working on electrified locomotives that regenerate their own energy as they go downhill, there are lots of exciting developments around ships, around tugs, I mean we have thought about everything right down to the lubricants that we use.”

Ms Booth said Fortescue would “give a bloody good crack” at achieving real zero and making money doing so by 2030.