Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue are finding different roadblocks and workarounds in efforts to decarbonise their Pilbara mines.
Investment by Western Australia’s big three iron ore miners plays a major role in the global green energy transition.
It sets policy agendas, influences the decisions of mining contractors and encourages stakeholders into the renewable energy space.
Of the three majors, Rio Tinto and BHP are aiming for net zero emissions by 2050.
They can use offsets to achieve this.
The third of the trio, Fortescue, is aiming for real zero, which means no offsets and no emissions by 2030.
Rio wants a 50 per cent reduction from its 2018 emissions by 2030.
BHP is aiming for 30 per cent by 2030 from a 2020 base, plus 40 per cent in shipping emissions from a 2008 base.
BHP has pushed back investment in electric fleet replacement, noting a slow pace in developing such technology.
It also tweaked plans to build 550 megawatts of solar and wind farms last year in favour of pursuing third-party arrangements.
Still, BHP has been the star performer to date, generating more than 70 per cent of its global power via green energy and having cut electricity emissions 80 per cent since 2020.
Operational decarbonisation vice-president Daniel Heal said BHP was on track to meet its 2030 targets.
“In fact, we have exceeded that in recent years through the work we’ve done to bring renewable energy to our sites,” he said.
“The challenge ahead for us is displacing diesel in our operations, and we believe electrifying our mines is the best pathway to do this.
“While it’s an exciting time ahead, it is also a significant engineering challenge. Not just from the technical side – actually making battery electric equipment run – they need to be safe to operate and maintain.”
Mr Heal said entire mining ecosystems had to be changed to support battery trucks and locomotives.
That’s already happening at Fortescue.
It will be no surprise to readers that the Andrew Forrest-led miner is the clear frontrunner when it comes to ambition.
Fortescue’s efforts to reach real zero emissions by 2030 won’t be without challenges: its biggest renewable energy projects are sitting in a notoriously sluggish approvals regime and a lot of locomotives still need to be ordered, built and delivered.
But with $4.5 billion worth of contracts in place for electric heavy diesel machinery, enough renewable projects in the works to decarbonise almost twice over, and battery electric locomotive testing under way, doubts about the technical possibility of real zero are fading.
“This is not a prototype. This is real, and we’re getting on with it,” Fortescue metals and operations chief executive Dino Otranto said about the company’s new battery electric locomotives.
He may as well be talking about Fortescue’s broader green investments.
“We are also pursuing green iron [and] we have a plant at Christmas Creek that will be producing first metal this financial year,” Mr Otranto said.
“We are not doing this out of charity. We need these machines to be economic, we want them to compete on the open market against the old technology, and we are very comfortable that every decision we’ve made is economic.
“We are doing it to demonstrate to the world it’s possible.
“There are really no excuses now for anyone not to be ordering these or trucks or excavators, replacing your diesel and gas generation equipment [with] solar and wind.”
About 1.3 gigawatts of power generation is either already delivered or will begin construction by the end of the year.
Fortescue needs about 3GW of power and has a further 4GW on the drawing board.
To date, it has been solar and battery installations, though Fortescue’s first self-erecting wind turbines are due to arrive this year through Port Hedland.
The ace up Fortescue’s sleeve has been the construction of its own power generation through the Mining Act: an approvals pathway to assist mining development in WA.
This means Fortescue will not be part of the desired common-user grid, which government has been calling for in the Pilbara, as projects under the Mining Act can only service mining.
Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest has vowed to feed Fortescue’s power into the grid.
That would require legislative change, or at the very least some leeway from legislators.
During all of this, Fortescue’s emissions have been rising.
The miner expects a dramatic drop once the electric cavalry arrives.
Over at Rio Tinto, decarbonisation endeavours have had mixed success.
The Anglo-Australian miner decided the Wabtec locomotives it ordered were not up to scratch, which has left the region’s largest miner as the outlier among the big three, with no electric train on its tracks.
The company has trialled renewable fuels, which could offer more immediate (though not complete) carbon reduction.
One major benefit is that renewable fuel can be used in the existing internal combustion engine vehicles that comprise Rio’s entire Pilbara light, heavy and locomotive fleet.
While considered by some margin the cheapest way to cut emissions, sourcing enough supply to replace traditional fuel would be a monumental challenge for Rio.
The state and federal governments’ ambitions to grow domestic biofuels capacity have piqued Rio Tinto’s interest, and the company is trialling its own crop in Queensland.
Other measures to decarbonise are somewhat out of Rio Tinto’s control.
Rio and BHP are relying on third parties to build renewable power generation.
In its annual report published in February, Rio noted timely delivery of its projects could not be guaranteed.
“We have a pathway to our 2030 target of a 50 per cent reduction in scope one and two emissions,” Rio said in its annual report.
“This is dependent on the timely delivery of third-party projects to underpin those solutions and completion of commercial discussions, neither of which can be guaranteed by that date.”
It is about as close as any of the big miners have come to an admission the 2030 targets may not be met.
Rio Tinto has cut scope one and two emissions by 14 per cent since 2018.
Still, under Rio’s deal with the Yindjibarndi people, ground has been broken on a 75MW solar farm that could be scaled up relatively easily.
Added to this, Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation is currently working on the development of a further 3GW of power generation projects.
Rio Tinto and Fortescue were asked a series of questions about their decarbonisation endeavours.
Neither commented on the record.
