Hi Hottin, a great post yet again.
It's not going to be easy for even a new mine like Hio's to supply 100% zero emission iron ore. They will be able to run the mine on green energy as the technology to do so will be fairly mainstream in 2-3 years time.
But ex silver City you then have the diesel powered trains and oil powered ships. FMG is using green hydrogen derived ammonia in it's ships and locomotives but this is unlikely to be mainstream by then.
The only solution I see is solar along a great part of the 80km slurry pipeline easement to create LGC's, large-scale generation certificates, to offset the carbon pollution and effectively become carbon neutral end to end to a green steel mill. This is quite possible and rapidly becoming mainstream. And boy oh boy, will they want Supergrade(R) because it will require less hydrogen, electricity and waste disposal than any other iron ore.
Also third parties could install solar with batteries and supply power back to the mine 24/7 at US$0.06 cent per kWh and be free of grid charges and still make money. For if they buy the power from the grid it will most likely cost $0.045 cents retail plus incur transmission pass through charges of around $0.075, total $0.12 c at best, double of what it would cost by having a behind the meter system built for you. So the solar electrification of the Hio mine makes sense as energy is a, if not the, major ongoing cost. And Hio can power most things from green energy now that battery or hydrogen/NH3 powered mine vehicles are flowing onto the market although my guess is battery powered mining equipment will win due to energy losses in converting it to hydrogen.
BYD, who made and sold over 60,000 electric buses in worldwide in 2020, have unveiled their V60 battery electric dump truck as an example:
The beauty is that electrification can all be off the balance sheet with no capital outlay as mining contractors and solar/battery suppliers cue up to provide such systems, dramatically lowering both the mines upfront and ongoing costs and capital outlays and create LGC's, the prices of which have already more than doubled from $17 to $43 in the last 12 months and will continue upward as companies that carbon pollute scramble to buy them to become carbon neutral. Hio can both officially verify and monetise their green credentials at the same time.
Just the demand from the electrification of the worlds vehicle fleet alone, way over 100m vehicles whose makers will want green steel in the vehicles body, battery casings and LFeP chemistry will be massive and many countries are demanding a conversion away from internal combustion vehicles by 2030. This means ICE vehicle sales will fall off a cliff several years before then. And you can guarantee EV manufacturers wont dare make a green electrical vehicle out of dirty steel so carbon neutral iron ore demand will surge beyond supply = sales to the highest bidder without reference to and uncoupling from 62% hematite, as surely as the price of milk is from cream.
There is a massive and unstoppable worldwide thrust towards for green steel and HIO Supergrade(r) iron ore will be used to forge the very tip of the spear.
