Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with France-based sustainable iron company GravitHy to support the latter’s steel decarbonization project, namely, its planned low-carbon direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) production plant in France. Rio Tinto will supply high-grade direct reduction iron ore pellets to GravitHy’s planned project, as well as manage the sales and marketing of the ultra-low carbon hot briquetted iron GravitHy produces.
GravitHy’s low-carbon DRI and HBI production plant to be built in Fos-sur-Mer in southern France will have an annual production capacity of two million mt and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2028, as SteelOrbis previously reported. The plant, which is located next to a deep seaport, will feature ultra-low carbon hydrogen production infrastructure, powered by existing grid-connected nuclear power, to process direct reduction pellets into HBI. This process has the potential to reduce ironmaking-related carbon emissions by more than 90 percent.
