Multi-billion-dollar hot briquetted iron project gets environmental approval in Port Hedland
The processing plant, set to be built in Port Hedland, is backed by South Korean steel-maker POSCO and would refine raw iron ore from the Pilbara and turn it into direct reduction process hot briquetted iron (HBI), otherwise known as briquetted steel.
The state's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has approved the Port Hedland Iron (PHI) project to produce 2 million tonnes of iron briquettes annually.
The export town is the second-largest regional centre in the Pilbara, which provides around 40 per cent of the world's iron ore.
Hot briquetted iron is considered a more valuable product, which could more than double Australia's iron ore export revenue, according to a report published in May by the Superpower Institute.
The project, originally called the Port Hedland Green Steel Project, plans to be powered by renewables by 2050.
Experts, however, are not convinced it will reach those ambitions.
For the refining process to be considered green, the plant will need to be powered by renewable energy.
The EPA report outlines POSCO's plan to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy by 2049.
In the meantime, the facility will be powered using gas.
University of Western Australia sustainable engineering researcher Bill Grace said it would be incorrect to call the project green.
Mr Grace was not convinced the project would come to fruition because it was not clear how POSCO would source the hydrogen needed to displace gas.
"POSCO aren't proposing to produce renewable energy … so they would be buying that green energy from someone, which means someone has to have a bankable green hydrogen project to make this work," he said.
In recent months, several high-profile hydrogen projects, including in the Pilbara, have been abandoned by investors.
In its report, the EPA acknowledged the project would create "significant" greenhouse gas emissions while powered by gas.
But it reasoned it would provide a net benefit to global emissions by helping decarbonise the steelmaking process.
It highlighted the project's potential to pave the way for more renewable hydrogen projects.
Town of Port Hedland Mayor Peter Carter said the project would represent a major step forward for the area by diversifying its economy beyond exporting iron ore in its raw form.
"We've always been an iron ore port and we'll continue to be an iron ore port," he said.
"But [now with] a company like POSCO coming to town and having a green [iron] mill in our town, it will attract so many other people to come and say, 'If POSCO is there, why aren't we there?' It's a big draw card for other industry to come to play."
In its report, the EPA noted potential risks to the town's air quality from the project's nitrous oxide emissions, especially when considering separate developments earmarked for the same area.
The project would be located within the Boondarie Strategic Industrial Area, where several major mining companies are also developing hydrogen projects.
Cr Carter said local air pollution was not a concern for town residents.
With environmental approval secured, the next step for the project would be gaining the consent of the area's Kariyarra native title holders.
That can not happen until the Kariyarra people reach a land use agreement with the WA government, something still being negotiated.
A spokesperson for Port Hedland Iron, the body set up to manage the project, said the environmental approval was an important step as it considered a final investment decision.
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