Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 39

AsiaElec EMISSIONS AsiaElec
Rio Tinto to cut emissions in steel industry
GLOBAL
RIO Tinto, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, is to work with China Baowu Steel Group and Tsinghua University to find new ways to reduce emission in the steel industry.
“The materials we produce have an impor- tant role to play in the transition to a low-car- bon future and we are committed to partnering with our customers and others to find the most sustainable ways to produce, process and market them,” Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in Qingdao, China.
The three partners are to establish a working group to draw up a research and development plan that will cover new technologies, processes, equipment, logistics and industry co-ordination, Rio Tinto said in a statement.
Rio Tinto’s actions come as environmental- ists and the global climate change movement are putting pressure on mining companies and their customers in the steel industry. Steel manufac- turing uses both iron ore and metallurgical coal, both of which are carbon-intensive to mine and create greenhouse gas (GHG) when burnt.
“China Baowu looks forward to exploring low-carbon metallurgical innovation with Rio
Tinto and Tsinghua University, and building a low-carbon industrial value chain,” China Baowu chairman Chen Derong said in the statement.
The World Steel Association found that its members produced 2.31-2.98bn tonnes of GHGs in 2017, or 7-9% of global emissions, according to 2017 data from the World Steel Association and the BP Statistical Review of Energy.
Other mining and manufacturing companies are taking emissions reduction seriously as well. BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in July that his company, the world’s biggest miner, would invest $400mn over five years to reduce emissions. BHP also said it wanted to reduce the emissions produced when its customers use its
products.
Rio Tinto has been rationalising its global
assets. In 2018, it sold its Rossing uranium mine in Namibia to China National Uranium Corp. (CNUC), while it has also been disposing of its thermal coal mines.
In 2017, it sold its coal assets in the Hunter Valley region in New South Wales to China’s Yancoal.™
COAL
Extension for Adani in Queensland
AUSTRALIA
THE Queensland government has agreed to an extension in talks on a royalties agreement with India’s Adani Power for the controversial Carmi- chael coal project in the state’s Galilee Basin.
Both sides have agreed to extend the deadline for a deal from September 30 to November 30 in a bid to find a compromise.
Both also insisted that the project was still on track and that recently begun construction work at the site would carry on as planned.
Queensland Treasurer Jackie Trad said in a statement that talks would continue on the Roy- alty Deferral and Repayment Agreement, the last remaining regulatory hurdle that the coal min- ing and export project must clear.
Construction and development is already underway at the mine, which finally gained both state and federal approval after a long regulatory process that pitched environmental campaigners against Australia’s strong mining lobby.
On June 13, Queensland’s Environment Department approved the mine’s groundwater management plan.
For two years before June, Adani had pro- duced various plans to try to meet key envi- ronmental requirements, including a scheme to avoid destroying one of the world’s last unspoiled desert oases, the Doongmabulla Springs Complex.
The Environment Department in June said that Adani had now sufficiently established that Clematis Sandstone was the main source aquifer.
However, Adani must still do further analy- sis over the next two years to identify any other potential sources of water.
Although work is now underway at the mine, Adani faces wider problems in securing buyers for the coal, as buyers in Asia are well supplied and could rein in coal purchasing in future years.
Adani is targeting the Indian market, espe- cially private power generating companies. How- ever, the Indian government is keen to reduce coal imports and bolster domestic production, thereby exposing the Carmichael project to a potentially weak Indian market in future.
The US-based Institute for Energy Econom- ics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) recently warned that new emerging Asian buyers such as Vietnam and the Philippines were not buying enough to displace declining imports from Aus- tralia’s largest customers.
The IEEFA noted that Japan’s imports of New South Wales coal peaked in 2015 and were now falling.
Although Adani wants to sell to India, it can- not escape the prospect that Asia has less need for Australian coal, thereby making the Carmi- chael project a more risky venture.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 39 01•October•2019