Rio Tinto to work with China on steel decarbonisation

The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China's Nanjing Steel on decarbonising technology in ironmaking.

Both firms will explore pellitising using extracts from the Rio Tinto site in Pilbara, Western Australia. Technical teams will look at the Pilbara fines and biomass application.

The fines are used to make sintered ore that is used in a blast furnace to produce hot metal. Typically, the higher the grade of the ore used, the lower the carbon emissions.

This is not the first time the British-Australian mining and metal company has signed an MOU with a Chinese entity. Last year, they signed one with Baowu, a steelmaker, for a project aimed at making low-carbon steel using low-grade ore.

In March 2023, its rival - BHP Group - agreed to a trial of using carbon capture, utilisation and storage technology with HBIS Group Co Ltd (also Chinese based) at their steel mills.