The global mining and metal giant Rio Tinto's chief executive Jakob Stausholm has approached the worldwide leader of the iron ore industry’s founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, Dr Andrew Forrest, to identify if the two mining titans can work on the common interest of green hydrogen and its potentiality to replace fossil fuels.
Rio Tinto, the owner of bauxite and Iron ore, among other mining activities, with Fortescue, the iron ore exploring giant, mines in Western Australia, are in discussion about a collective approach to lower their carbon footprint, as both the companies intend to build industrial solar and wind farms near their WA mines.
In addition to driving Fortescue’s strategy to grace as a significant player in the global supply of green hydrogen, Dr Andrew Forrest is now a substantial player in Australian renewables following his investment of more than $4 billion for CWP renewables by virtue of his privately owned Squadron Energy.
Rio's chief executive Jacob Stausholm contacted Dr Forrest right away after Rio Tinto's chief scientist Dr Nigel Steward informed the shareholders that hydrogen remained exorbitantly expensive and still required "a technology breakthrough" to reduce the cost.
However, Dr Steward set down a question mark over whether green hydrogen could be cautiously shipped, impacting the environment and added that Rio’s strategy needs to be “only produce hydrogen where we consume it”.
Both the mining giants have reached the point where their chief scientists will meet and compare jottings on hydrogen to encourage collaboration. Still, it is being determined if that will lead to them working together on decarbonisation projects.
A few days back, Dr Nigel Steward commented, "Rio did not see green hydrogen as an energy carrier but did see a case for using it making steel, iron and titanium, and in alumina refineries."
“If we’re going to transport it around the world as liquid hydrogen, that’s problematic because one per cent of the hydrogen per day is lost to the atmosphere.”
“This means burning natural gas is better than transporting hydrogen worldwide and then consuming it later. And this is the reason why when we look at hydrogen, we’re going to produce it where we consume it.”
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