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From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Australian iron ore is predominantly exported and used for steelmaking internationally. However, steelmaking is an energy- and carbon-intensive heavy industry, and its electrification in the coming decades will likely disrupt the existing iron ore–steel value chains. Green steel—produced using hydrogen and electricity from renewable energy sources—presents both opportunities and challenges for Australia. Indeed, with abundant renewable energy potential and iron-ore resources, Australia could lead this global transformation. Here, we examine the interrelationships between the Australian iron-ore industry, the production of green-hydrogen from renewable energy sources, and an emergent green steelmaking process. In particular, we undertake detailed case studies to estimate current green steel production costs within two regions; the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. While existing technology is not well suited to Australian hematite ores, our analysis highlights the site-specific competitiveness of small-scale, magnetite-fed, off-grid operations. The results underscore the advantages of a well-optimised system in decreasing hydrogen and energy storage requirements, and decreasing production costs. While our results also suggest that grid-connected projects could reduce costs through flexible operation, more work is required to understand the limitations of these conclusions. The results underscore the need to develop technologies to utilise hematite ores in green steelmaking, but also highlight the opportunity for this emerging industry to commercialise Australia’s magnetite resources. Citation: Wang C., Walsh S. D. C., Haynes M. W., Weng Z., Feitz A., Summerfield D., & Lutalo I., 2022. From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147005

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Field Value
Title From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/fcfc0ada-470d-4808-946b-e41ebdda28da
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 08/04/2019
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "From Australian iron ore to green steel: the opportunity for technology-driven decarbonisation". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/from-australian-iron-ore-to-green-steel-the-opportunity-for-technology-driven-decarbonisation