ESG Today writes that Rio Tinto officials are expected to invest 143 million USD for this project, which could support the company's efforts to decarbonize its steel value chain. Rio Tinto set a goal to reduce its carbon emissions by 15% by 2025, as well as by 50% by the end of this decade. Net zero is targeted by executives by 2050 and almost 70% of the company's Scope 3 emissions come from steelmaking.

The low-emissions steelmaking process was developed by Rio Tinto's team of decarbonization experts and it uses raw biomass, as well as microwave energy, instead of coal in order to process the metal ore.

Using renewable energy and fast-growing biomass, this process has the ability to cut carbon emissions by 95% compared to currently-used blast furnace methods. It is also said to be more energy efficient, too, using less than a third of the electricity needed for other similar processes. Rio Tinto officials said that this will be the first time this process will be used at a semi-industrial scale and that the Australian facility will be ten times larger than the one currently operating in Germany.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said that "the world needs low-carbon steel to reach net zero, and we are working to make this a reality by finding better ways to turn our Pilbara ores into steel. BioIron is a world-first technology that has the potential to play a significant role in a low-carbon steel future."