Fortescue produces first hot metal towards green iron production in Australia

The pilot project was built to test new technology and develop a pathway for ultimately producing green metal using Pilbara ore.

First hot metal means the project has successfully produced molten metal in its electric smelting furnace. As part of commissioning, this has initially been produced using a blended feedstock while the facility is progressively brought online.

Commissioning of the project will continue in stages, allowing the team to safely test, refine and optimise the process before progressing to larger-scale production.

Fortescue Metals CEO Dino Otranto says this is a significant milestone for its 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," he states.

Otranto explains that nobody has solved green metal production using Pilbara ore at commercial scale yet, and that is the challenge that Fortescue is taking on.