All the way to net zero: Ingredients for decarbonising iron ore

By Dr Humair Nadeem.

Transitioning Australia’s iron and steel industry is not just a matter of technologies and feedstocks. We need a systems approach to the development of a more sustainable iron ore to green steel supply chain in Australia.

The question of transitioning or decarbonising Australia’s iron ore industry is a question of unlocking opportunities and efficient resource allocation.  

You may have heard that the cleanest way to produce steel – which we would call Green Steel or Low Emissions Steel, is by using hydrogen. But that’s just one of the magic ingredients. You also need the right iron ore, the right forms of energy and the right technology.  

Allow me to give you an iron ore statistic. Magnetite – an iron ore resource available in great abundance throughout Australia, is a possible “correct” type of feedstock for Green Steel production.  

44% of Australia’s magnetite is found in South Australia, only 1 % is found in Tasmania. Despite this vast difference in resource availability, both states produce roughly the same amount of magnetite – 13 %. 

So, what is stopping us from getting our hands on this green steel-enabling resource? And from changing the economic landscape of South Australia? What is stopping it from becoming the next powerhouse of Australia’s iron ore sector and from future proofing our greatest export in an increasingly environmentally conscious world?  

For one thing – Its Water.  

You see, processing iron ores such as magnetite requires huge amounts of water. Specifically, converting iron ore into high-quality feedstock ready for low emissions steel production requires the ore to be crushed, ground and then mixed with water to create a slurry that is then processed through a process called wet magnetic separation. 

In my research I am developing dry pathways for iron ore processing that have the potential to cut down water requirements by up to 90% ! This will help us to not only unlock more of our iron ore resources but also to tap into them more profitably and with a much smaller environmental footprint. 

The transition of our iron and steel industry, however, is not just a matter of innovative technologies and novel feedstocks. If it was – If it was a matter of the right technology and the right feedstock, then Australia – with all the iron ore in its right hand and highest quality metallurgical coal in its left hand would have been a steel making juggernaut. But we are not. 

Setting up a green steel industry and transitioning our resources sector to a net zero future is going to be more than swapping technologies and feedstocks. We need to overcome multiple hurdles and engage with a wider array of stakeholders.  

As a part of Towards Net Zero, my team and I also take a systems approach to the development of a more sustainable iron ore to green steel supply chain in Australia. We research the increase in infrastructure requirements such as roads, water distribution networks, and upgrades to the energy grids.

But then we also analyse the effects of other critical factors such as access to finance and the upskilling of our human capital, the demands of local manufactures and development of research hubs and setting up national and international research collaboration. We investigate our industry’s resilience to international trade barriers and the potential impact of future trade wars, the need for natural resource management and the equitable delivery of co-benefits to our First Nations Peoples, and other local communities. We look at these factors and all intricate interactions between them and more.  

By identifying and characterising Australia’s greatest challenges in the light of our many strengths and privileges, my team and I seek to ensure, that one of our most valuable resources – a resource when combined with our innovation and ingenuity may very well herald the demise of these millennia old, carbon intensive methods of iron production that are a major roadblock in our transition to net zero.

Our work aims to continue to place Australian iron ore, firmly – and rightfully as the cornerstone of Australia’ future net zero economy for decades to come.   

A colleague of mine, one who may actually be in the audience today once asked me. ‘Humair, iron and steel is a hard to abate sector. Why abate the hard to abate? Why not focus our energies on other things? Well, that leads me to the second thing us Australians are known for. We aren’t one’s to do things by halves, and the mission is not to get half-way to net zero but to go all the way.