Canadian Government gives more than £10.5mln towards iron ore decarbonisation

The award is to support decarbonisation of iron ore processing at the Rio Tinto's Labrador West operations.

The Government of Canada has allocated over £10.5mln from its Low Carbon Economy Fund to Rio Tinto's Iron Ore Company (IOC) of Canada.

Rio Tinto says the IOC will reduce heavy fuel oil consumed by the production of iron-ore pellets and concentrate.

The IOC plans to install an electric boiler to displace emissions from the usage of heavy fuel oil boilers, as well as instrumentation and fuel-efficient burners to further reduce heavy fuel oil consumption from induration machines.

The mining company anticipates reducing 2.2Mt of greenhouse gas emissions over the liftetime of the project.

The new equipment is expected to be installed in Q2 of 2024 and completed in the first half of next year, creating more than 100 jobs during the construction and implementation stages.

IOC President and Chief Executive Officer Mike McCann says, 'Rio Tinto IOC has a plan to decarbonise and continue producing some of the lowest carbon-intensity, high-grade iron ore products in the world, right here in Canada. This project alone will eliminate approximately 9% of IOC’s greenhouse gas emissions.'

The Government of Canada's contribution is ~25% of the total cost of the project, with the IOC funding the rest.