Rio Tinto has used the official opening of its HImselt pig iron plant at Kwinana to predict that five commercial HIsmelt plants could be in operation within the next decade.
Rio Tinto has used the official opening of its HImselt pig iron plant at Kwinana to predict that five commercial HIsmelt plants could be in operation within the next decade.
Rio hosted a special ceremony last week to mark the first anniversary of the plant’s commissioning.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Sam Walsh said it was also 25 years since work commenced on the project, which has cost a total of $1 billion and become Australia’s biggest research and development project.
“It is no exaggeration to say HIsmelt is revolutionary,” Mr Walsh said.
“It is all too rare for Australia to develop world-first and world-class projects.”
The HIsmelt plant uses a direct smelting technology that smelts iron ore fines and non-coking coal to produce a premium grade iron product.
Rio believes the process is more environmentally friendly than traditional iron making, as it does not require coke ovens and sinter plants.
It is designed to unlock billions of tonnes of iron ore deposits with high phosphorous content that cannot be processed economically using current technology.
HIsmelt is also designed to provide a new source of low cost iron feed stock for electric arc furnaces.
Therefore Rio believes the most likely users of the technology will be steel makers expanding their production.
Mr Walsh said there had been a lot of interest in the technology, with many of the world’s major steel producers visiting the plant.
He also played down the prospect of Rio proceeding with any further development in its own right. When Rio announced the go-ahead for the Kwinana plant in 2002, it noted the possibility that a steel plant could also be built at Kwinana.
HIsmelt managing director Stephen Weber said he was comfortable with a prediction that five HIsmelt plants could be built over the next decade.
He indicated that China was the most likely place for the new plants to be built, given the rapid expansion occurring there, but added that steel producers in the US, Europe and India had also shown interest.
However, before the technology is licensed to other users, Rio needs to complete commissioning of the existing plant, which has been a challenging process.
It was originally intended that commissioning would start in 2004 and ramp-up to full production would take about two years.
In practice, production commenced in 2005 and the ramp-up to full production of 800,000 tonnes a year is expected to take three years.
Despite the delays, Mr Weber said it was a major achievement that the plant had completed the first year of operation.
The first 40,000t shipment of ore left for the US in June and a second shipment is due to leave shortly.
Mr Walsh said the HIsmelt team was progressively resolving problems at the plant.
“Teething problems have been knocked on the head one by one, as you would expect from a commissioning process,” he said.
Development of the project has been assisted by $125 million of federal government assistance and the provision of 70 hectares of land by the state government.
The Kwinana plant is majority owned by Rio Tinto (65 per cent), with minority shareholders being Nucor Corporation (25 per cent), Mitsubishi Corporation (10 per cent) and Shougang Corporation (5 per cent).
