Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive, Simon Trott and Rio Tinto Managing Director of Port, Rail and Core Services, Richard Cohen, joined community members, local businesses and representatives from local government to celebrate the official opening of its new community ‘Hub’ in Karratha. Located on Ngarluma country in the heart of Karratha’s CBD, the new Rio Tinto Karratha Hub will make it easier for local …
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive, Simon Trott and Rio Tinto Managing Director of Port, Rail and Core Services, Richard Cohen, joined community members, local businesses and representatives from local government to celebrate the official opening of its new community ‘Hub’ in Karratha.
Located on Ngarluma country in the heart of Karratha’s CBD, the new Rio Tinto Karratha Hub will make it easier for local people to connect with our busines.
The modern space constructed by lead contractor GBSC Yurra in conjunction with other local businesses, features a meeting room named by Ngarluma elders in recognition of its location on Ngarluma country, work stations, kitchen facilities and local artwork.
Rio Tinto hopes the “Marunharri” room, which means “big mob” in Ngarluma language, will become a place of listening, learning and collarboration between Rio Tinto and the Karratha community.
The Hub will be open to the public on weekdays from 9am to 4pm and visitors are encouraged to get to know their local Rio Tinto team. People can visit the Hub to ask questions about employment and training opportunities, local procurement including the ‘Buy Local’ initiative, opportunities for Pilbara Aboriginal businesses and community grant funding.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive, Simon Trott said “Karratha is home to many of our employees, local suppliers, as well as government, community and Traditional Owner partners and is critical to our operations.
“The new hub builds on the work we have been doing with the City of Karratha to enhance community life through new and improved services throughout the region.”
Rio Tinto Iron Ore managing director of Port, Rail and Core Services, Richard Cohen said “It is great to see the Rio Tinto sign in the main street of town. Rio Tinto is proud of its long connection to the Karratha community and I expect the new hub will further strenghten our ties with local business, community groups and any locals who want to connect with our team.
“The opening of this new hub, a place designed specifically for local people to feel welcome and connected to our company, is part of our commitment to being a good local and to help to build thriving communities.”
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211014005440/en/
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Rio Tinto is progressing an innovative new technology to deliver low-carbon steel, using sustainable biomass in place of coking coal in the steelmaking process, in a potentially cost-effective option to cut industry carbon emissions. Over the past decade, Rio Tinto has developed a laboratory-proven process that combines the use of raw, sustainable biomass with microwave technology to convert iron ore to metallic …
Rio Tinto is progressing an innovative new technology to deliver low-carbon steel, using sustainable biomass in place of coking coal in the steelmaking process, in a potentially cost-effective option to cut industry carbon emissions.
Over the past decade, Rio Tinto has developed a laboratory-proven process that combines the use of raw, sustainable biomass with microwave technology to convert iron ore to metallic iron during the steelmaking process. The patent-pending process, one of a number of avenues the company is pursuing to try to lower emissions in the steel value chain, is now being further tested in a small-scale pilot plant.
If this and larger-scale tests are successful, there is the potential over time for this technology to be scaled commercially to process Rio Tinto’s iron ore fines.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said, “We are encouraged by early testing results of this new process, which could provide a cost-efficient way to produce low-carbon steel from our Pilbara iron ore.
“More than 70 per cent of Rio Tinto’s Scope 3 emissions are generated as customers process our iron ore into steel, which is critical for urbanisation and infrastructure development as the world’s economies decarbonise. So, while it’s still early days and there is a lot more research and other work to do, we are keen to explore further development of this technology.”
Rio Tinto’s process uses plant matter known as lignocellulosic biomass, instead of coal, primarily as a chemical reductant. The biomass is blended with iron ore and heated by a combination of gas released by the biomass and high efficiency microwaves that can be powered by renewable energy.
Rio Tinto researchers are working with the multi-disciplinary team in the University of Nottingham’s Microwave Process Engineering Group to further develop the process.
The University’s Head of Department, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Professor Chris Dodds, said, “It is really exciting to have the opportunity to be part of a great team working on a technology that, if developed to commercial scale, has the potential to have a global impact through decarbonising key parts of the steel production process.”
The use of raw biomass in Rio Tinto’s process could also avoid the inefficiencies and associated costs of other biomass-based technologies that first convert the biomass into charcoal or biogas.
Lignocellulosic biomass includes agriculture by-products (i.e. wheat straw, corn stover, barley straw, sugar cane bagasse) and purpose-grown crops, which would be sustainable sources for the process.
Importantly, the process cannot use foods such as sugar or corn, and Rio Tinto would not use biomass sources that support logging of old-growth forests.
Simon Trott said, “We know there are complex issues related to biomass sourcing and use and there is a lot more work to do for this to be a genuinely sustainable solution for steelmaking. We will continue working with others to understand more about these concerns and the availability of sustainable biomass.”
If developed further, the technology would be accompanied by a robust and independently accredited certification process for sustainable sources of biomass.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211013005391/en/
Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com
Media Relations, UK
Illtud Harri
M +44 7920 503 600
David Outhwaite
M +44 7787 597 493
Media Relations, Americas
Matthew Klar
T +1 514 608 4429
Media Relations, Australia
Jonathan Rose
M +61 447 028 913
Matt Chambers
M +61 433 525 739
Jesse Riseborough
M +61 436 653 412
Investor Relations, UK
Menno Sanderse
M: +44 7825 195 178
David Ovington
M +44 7920 010 978
Clare Peever
M +44 7788 967 877
Investor Relations, Australia
Natalie Worley
M +61 409 210 462
Amar Jambaa
M +61 472 865 948
Rio Tinto plc
6 St James’s Square
London SW1Y 4AD
United Kingdom
T +44 20 7781 2000
Registered in England
No. 719885
Rio Tinto Limited
Level 7, 360 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
Australia
T +61 3 9283 3333
Registered in Australia
ABN 96 004 458 404
Category: General
News Provided by Business Wire via QuoteMedia
