Fortescue has produced first hot metal at its Green Metal Project at Christmas Creek in Western Australia, marking the first successful operation of its electric smelting process and a major step towards producing green metal in Australia.
The pilot project was built to test new technology and develop a pathway for ultimately producing green metal using Pilbara ore.
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Commissioning of the project will continue in stages, allowing Fortescue to safely test, refine, and optimise the process before progressing to larger-scale production.
First hot metal means the project has successfully produced molten metal in its electric smelting furnace. Electric smelting feeds direct reduced iron into an electric smelting furnace to create a zero-carbon or low-emission metal feed for steel mills.
As part of commissioning, this has initially been produced using a blended feedstock while the facility is progressively brought online.
Fortescue Metals CEO Dino Otranto said, “This is a significant milestone for our Green Metal Project and another step towards producing commercial-scale green metal in Australia.
“For decades Australia has exported iron ore to the world. The next opportunity is to create more value from that ore by producing green metal here at home.
“Australia has some of the world’s best renewable energy resources and one of the world’s largest iron ore industries. That’s a competitive advantage we should be building on. If we don’t, other renewable-rich countries will.
“The real opportunity goes beyond green metal. It’s about building a new industrial economy around Australia’s renewable energy advantage.
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“Nobody has solved green metal production using Pilbara ore at commercial scale yet. That’s the challenge we’re taking on.”
