02-06-2025
Mining giant Rio Tinto growing native pongamia trees for biofuel potential
Rio Tinto has started growing pongamia trees in northern Australia, as part of a biofuels project aimed at reducing the mining giant's reliance on fossil fuels.
Pongamia trees are native to Australia and produce oil-rich seeds that can be processed into renewable diesel.
The company has already planted 8,000 trees near its bauxite project on the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, and has also started planting 750,000 trees at a new farm it bought near Townsville in Queensland.
"Midway Limited has been tasked with overseeing the planting and management of that seed farm."
Mr Hoffman said fast-growing pongamia trees were common in the suburbs of Brisbane and Darwin.
"It's around five years before you can harvest seeds, but then the tree has a very long life span," he told ABC Rural.
"One of the benefits is this tree does appear to grow well on degraded land or previously mined land.
"Also in terms of waste products, the meal that's left behind after the seed is pressed [for oil], with further treatment, can be used as a cattle feed."
He said pongamia seeds would not be able to fuel Rio's entire fleet of mining vehicles, but would hopefully play a role.
Earlier this year, Rio Tinto trialled 10 million litres of renewable diesel — created from used cooking oil — across its Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia.
The biofuel got used across the supply chain, featuring in Rio Tinto's rail, marine, haul trucks, surface mining equipment and light vehicles.
Rio Tinto's managing director of rail, port and core services, Richard Cohen, said diesel made up about 70 per cent of the total carbon emissions from the company's Pilbara iron ore operations.
"While electrification is the ultimate longer-term solution for re-powering the majority of our fleet, we're also exploring biofuels as a complementary and nearer-term solution," he said.
Forestry Industry Association of the Northern Territory (FIANT) manager Hanna Lillicrap said it was great to see a major mining company getting involved in the forestry sector.
"It reflects a growing recognition of the role forestry can play as a climate-positive solution in emissions reduction strategies," she said.
Ms Lillicrap said Australia was quickly becoming a leader in pongamia research and mining money was welcome.
"It's great to see serious investment going into research to better understand the species and its potential," she said.
"If it can be made viable at scale, pongamia could play a role in the mix in decarbonisation efforts by providing a renewable fuel alternative, especially for hard-to-abate sectors."
