Iron ore miner Rio Tinto is pressing ahead with development of a pilot plant south of Perth to test the merits of local green iron production.
Iron ore miner Rio Tinto is pressing ahead with development of a pilot plant south of Perth to test the merits of local green iron production.
The Pilbara miner has now submitted a development application to the City of Rockingham to builds its $215 million BioIron pilot plant in the east Rockingham industrial area.
Those plans contain a cross-section showing the existing warehouse would be expanded with new smoke and air stacks, storage silos, and a dust filter.
That facility will also house stockpiles, an office, mill, batch processors, a furnace, and other storage and handling equipment.
The existing warehouse will be retrofitted and a new addition built to the south of the current structure.
Rio Tinto has estimated two B-double road trains will kart iron ore fines and biomass to the facility each day while it is operating.
The site is currently an empty 9,000 square metre industrial shed that has been vacant for five years.
Rio Tinto revealed its plans for the site in June in a ceremony including chief executive Simon Trott and Premier Roger Cook.
BioIron will be made by using biomass and microwave energy instead of coal to convert Pilbara iron ore into metallic iron, which is a precursor to hot briquetted iron.
Rio has been working on the product for more than 10 years, including in Germany, where it had a smaller pilot plant.
The Rockingham facility will be 10 times larger and employ 30 full-time staff to operate the plant and conduct research.
Rio Tinto research has found use of biomass and microwave energy requires about one-third the electricity requirements of steelmaking processing relying on renewable hydrogen.
The plant has been designed by Rio Tinto, Sedgman Onyx, Metso Outotec, and the University of Nottingham and is expected to be commissioned in 2026.
Rio Tinto is hoping to find enough local agricultural waste product such as straw to use as biomass for the pilot plant.
It has ruled out using biomass produced from old growth forest or unsustainable logging.
Submissions to the plan close next month.
