In addition to selling mines, Rio Tinto also wants to seize new opportunities for China's "dual carbon" carbon neutrality New opportunities for CIIE

Interface News Reporter | Interface Industries

"The Chinese market is important for Rio Tinto and for all international mining companies. China already accounts for more than half of the world's steel production, and the Chinese market accounts for more than half of Rio Tinto's revenue. ”

During the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE), Jakob Stausholm, CEO of Rio Tinto, said.

Shi believes that participating in the CIIE is a natural choice for Rio Tinto, "because the Chinese market is very important to us", and Rio Tinto hopes to use the CIIE as a platform to understand the needs of customers today and their future needs.

This is Shi Daocheng's first time participating in the CIIE, but Rio Tinto has been actively participating in the fair in a variety of ways over the past five years. In May this year, Rio Tinto signed a memorandum of cooperation with the China International Import Expo Bureau for long-term participation in the 2024-2028 exhibition.

As the world's largest steel producer, China is an old friend of Rio Tinto. The company produces iron ore, which is the most important raw material for steel.

Rio Tinto is the world's largest iron ore producer, with its headquarters in London, England and Melbourne in Australia. In 1973, Rio Tinto became the first company to ship iron ore to China, marking the 50th anniversary of Rio Tinto's iron ore exports to China.

In recent years, in addition to iron ore trading, Rio Tinto has also formed joint ventures with a number of Chinese companies to jointly develop Australia's mineral resources.

In 1988, Rio Tinto and Sinosteel established a joint venture in Western Australia to build China's first major overseas mineral resource investment project, and last year, Rio Tinto announced a joint development with China Baowu on the western slope of the Pilbara in Australia.

In addition to iron ore, Rio Tinto's deal with China also involves copper ore and bauxite.

On November 7, Rio Tinto announced at the 6th CIIE that it had signed copper concentrate supply and commercial cooperation agreements with Gansu Trading Group Jinchuan Group Co., Ltd. and Baiyin Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd., and signed a copper concentrate supply and commercial cooperation agreement with Aluminum Corporation of China, as well as a bauxite supply and commercial cooperation agreement.

In addition to mineral trade, Rio Tinto also sees opportunities for transformation under China's "dual carbon" goals.

At this year's show, Rio Tinto showcased its patented low-carbon technology, BioIron™, for the first time in China.

In the past, the ironmaking and steelmaking industry has been using coal-based fossil fuels, resulting in the steel industry accounting for about 8% of the world's total carbon emissions. To reduce carbon emissions from the steel smelting process, Rio Tinto has developed this biomass ironmaking technology.

The technology uses biomass, such as wheat straw, rice straw and rape straw, to replace coking coal as a reducing agent, and then converts Pilbara iron ore into metallic iron through microwave energy.

"This biomass ironmaking technology is a promising one, and we have already achieved some very positive early test results and are in the process of designing a larger-scale continuous pilot plant. "Shi Daocheng said.

He mentioned that China is now paying more attention to high-quality development and has set "dual carbon" goals, and Rio Tinto attaches great importance to the opportunities it brings.

"China's focus on high-quality development is very noteworthy, which contains a huge commitment to the development of renewable energy and decarbonization. At the same time, I also see more practice and investment in China's manufacturing industry in automation and digitalization. "Shi Daocheng said.

Rio Tinto believes that its production of high-grade iron ore, copper and aluminium is critical to driving decarbonisation, while at the same time working to develop materials that can help enable the low-carbon transition.

For example, the Simandou high-grade iron ore project in Guinea, jointly developed by Rio Tinto and China Baowu, will help to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from the steelmaking process in the future.

In addition, Rio Tinto has carried out relevant R&D cooperation with enterprises, universities and institutions such as China Baowu, Shougang Group and Tsinghua University to jointly explore the path of low-carbon steel and sustainable development.

Green development and low-carbon emission reduction have become a trend, but it will be a big challenge for the mining industry. For Rio Tinto, which includes both ore gathering and processing and manufacturing, this is more difficult.

Rio Tinto has set itself Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets, with a 50% reduction in emissions from its operations by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

We're going to try to solve that. For example, Rio Tinto has been working hard to find a solution that allows primary aluminium to be produced without directly emitting any CO2 in its smelting production, and has now found a way to do it: the revolutionary electrolytic aluminium technology ELYSISTM. "Shi Daocheng said.

In addition, Rio Tinto has also experimented with the BlueSmeltingTM project, which involves an ilmenite reduction technology that can help produce titanium dioxide, steel and metal powders with a significantly lower carbon footprint.