RIO Tinto is in the process of deconstructing its iron ore processing test plant at Kwinana, ahead of plans for a commercial 800,000-tonnes-a-year processing facility.
RIO Tinto is in the process of deconstructing its iron ore processing test plant at Kwinana, ahead of plans for a commercial 800,000-tonnes-a-year processing facility.
Rio is hoping that, after 10 years as a research and development site, the Kwinana holdings will be the proving ground for processing that requires no sinter or separate coke oven and is able to deal with ore unsuitable for current technologies.
The company has been expecting a final environmental approval decision this month, following assessment by the appeals convener of objections to an approval from the Environment Protection Authority.
In the meantime, Rio has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract and continued to progess local licence talks with the Kwinana Town Council. The company is keen to get into production, with demand for pig iron increasing within the Asian electric arc furnace industry and a process inhand that is competitive in terms of capital and operating costs, and demonstrated to produce a 96 per cent iron content product.
Rio’s direct iron-smelting process, known as HIsmelt, also lends its name to the Rio Tinto subsidiary, which has taken on joint venture partners NucorCorp, Mitsubishi, and the Shougang Group for the first stage of this initiative.
This first stage will comprise two years’ construction, at a cost in excess of $A400 million and involving the creation of 320 jobs.
Exports from the initial development are expected to be worth an annual $A200 million.
If economically viable, HIsmelt intends to double the plant’s capacity, and perhaps add a niche steel plant.
“The ore processing plant would be a perfect front-end to a steel plant – the iron can be fed into the steel plant while still hot,” (Rio Tinto subsidiary) Hamersley Iron principal adviser external affairs, Matthew Coomber, said.
The plant will be power balanced and will produce no effluent.
Off-gas will be used to pre-heat the ore and heat the stoves, while water from a reverse-osmosis plant at Woodman Point will be evaporated in the iron cooling plant.
The plant will generate 32 megawatts of power, more than it needs, and hence will supply into the grid.
Hismelt manager technical marketing Steve Gull said the revolutionary process, for which Rio owns the intellectual property, produces 20 per cent less carbon dioxide, 40 per cent less nitrates, and 90 per cent less sulphates than other iron ore processing technologies.
One question Rio is often asked is why it would locate the plant at Kwinana, when some of the company’s iron ore feed is in the Pilbara and the most appropriate coal will come from its central Queensland reserves.
The answer is purely commercial.
Port facilities, a skilled labour force within the region and heavy industrial zoning favour Kwinana.
Exchange rates have ruled out other potential locations, and Pilbara construction and support costs are prohibitive, particularly while the process is being proved-up commercially. And while work is ongoing to determine how to use high-moisture and high-volatile coal such as that found in Collie, the processing technology could optionally use natural gas.
Twenty-five per cent stakeholder Nucor has a reputation for pioneering cost-effective steel production technology; Mitsubishi (10 per cent) – with whom Rio has a long-term association – is known for its trade expertise; while Shougang is a large steel-maker in China, which is deemed the fastest growing steel market worldwide.
Rio’s smelting process can take high-level phosphorous iron ore, which is usually unmarketable, but found in abundance in the Pilbara region.
Rio is hoping that, after 10 years as a research and development site, the Kwinana holdings will be the proving ground for processing that requires no sinter or separate coke oven and is able to deal with ore unsuitable for current technologies.
The company has been expecting a final environmental approval decision this month, following assessment by the appeals convener of objections to an approval from the Environment Protection Authority.
In the meantime, Rio has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract and continued to progess local licence talks with the Kwinana Town Council. The company is keen to get into production, with demand for pig iron increasing within the Asian electric arc furnace industry and a process inhand that is competitive in terms of capital and operating costs, and demonstrated to produce a 96 per cent iron content product.
Rio’s direct iron-smelting process, known as HIsmelt, also lends its name to the Rio Tinto subsidiary, which has taken on joint venture partners NucorCorp, Mitsubishi, and the Shougang Group for the first stage of this initiative.
This first stage will comprise two years’ construction, at a cost in excess of $A400 million and involving the creation of 320 jobs.
Exports from the initial development are expected to be worth an annual $A200 million.
If economically viable, HIsmelt intends to double the plant’s capacity, and perhaps add a niche steel plant.
“The ore processing plant would be a perfect front-end to a steel plant – the iron can be fed into the steel plant while still hot,” (Rio Tinto subsidiary) Hamersley Iron principal adviser external affairs, Matthew Coomber, said.
The plant will be power balanced and will produce no effluent.
Off-gas will be used to pre-heat the ore and heat the stoves, while water from a reverse-osmosis plant at Woodman Point will be evaporated in the iron cooling plant.
The plant will generate 32 megawatts of power, more than it needs, and hence will supply into the grid.
Hismelt manager technical marketing Steve Gull said the revolutionary process, for which Rio owns the intellectual property, produces 20 per cent less carbon dioxide, 40 per cent less nitrates, and 90 per cent less sulphates than other iron ore processing technologies.
One question Rio is often asked is why it would locate the plant at Kwinana, when some of the company’s iron ore feed is in the Pilbara and the most appropriate coal will come from its central Queensland reserves.
The answer is purely commercial.
Port facilities, a skilled labour force within the region and heavy industrial zoning favour Kwinana.
Exchange rates have ruled out other potential locations, and Pilbara construction and support costs are prohibitive, particularly while the process is being proved-up commercially. And while work is ongoing to determine how to use high-moisture and high-volatile coal such as that found in Collie, the processing technology could optionally use natural gas.
Twenty-five per cent stakeholder Nucor has a reputation for pioneering cost-effective steel production technology; Mitsubishi (10 per cent) – with whom Rio has a long-term association – is known for its trade expertise; while Shougang is a large steel-maker in China, which is deemed the fastest growing steel market worldwide.
Rio’s smelting process can take high-level phosphorous iron ore, which is usually unmarketable, but found in abundance in the Pilbara region.
