DEVELOPING LOW-CARBON IRON ORE TO SUPPLY THE TRANSITION TO GREEN STEEL

Wood Mackenzie, October 2023

“Decarbonisation will support the emergence of new production, processing and trading hubs for low-carbon iron and steel. Driven by rising demand for green steel, the industry’s push for net zero is set to transform the value chain of a commodity essential to the industrialised world. 

These new hubs will centre on abundant, low-cost renewable electricity and competitive green hydrogen supply, both key to the production of green direct reduced iron (DRI), used as feedstock in steelmaking.”

Project Overview

Kritiske is highly attractive from all angles.

  • It will produce initially DRI concentrate with grade of 70% Fe.

  • Its nieghboring Mine LKAB has been producing the highest quality DRI pellets in the world. The characteristics of Kritiske ore is similar.

  • The world’s pioneer green steel plant is only a few hundred kilometers away. (h2 Green Steel)

  • Kritiske will be collaborating with several leading companies in finding buisiness solutions to reduce the need for fossil fuels in the mining operations. Here, future wind power projects such as Käymävaara and Selkävaara can play an important role.

  • The product will be in high demand from European steel and pellet producers with the rest of the world.

  • Based on management experience in similar projects in Brazil, we hope to develop a 4.5m mtpa DRI concentrate plant, based on the already established resource and grade of ore, as phase one.

Way Forward

Scope of work will include:

  • a geological write up, including mineralogy and a mineral resource estimate.

  • conceptual design of mining, waste dumps, haul roads, etc.

  • develop a preliminary flow sheet and mass balance.

  • conceptual plant design.

  • development of capital costs, operating costs, and NPV.