what about this chess play earnie , page-6

rio and dri Here is a cut & paste on Rio & DRI from 2002. Anyone care to comment on this and how APG has a better solution?

"Hismelt (April 2002)

Rio Tinto Ltd has confirmed the construction of a $400 million commercial scale HIsmelt plant in Kwinana south of Perth, after securing federal government assistance of A$125million ($50 million plus a further $75 million contingent on the steel mill), WA government $30 million in land and port facilities and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp as a joint venture partner.

Mitsubishi would take a 10 per cent stake in the project, joining Rio Tinto (60 per cent), US steelmaker Nucor Corp (25 per cent) and Chinese steelmaker Shougang Corporation (five per cent).

The project will produce around 800,000 tonnes of high quality pig iron a year using lower grade and lower value iron ore (typically 25 per cent less), such as the high phosphorous ores found in the Pilbara region of WA. It would promote a cleaner steel industry not requiring coke ovens and sinter plants and producing less greenhouse gas per tonne of metal.

It followed more than that 20 years of research and development at a cost of A$600 million.

Construction will commence early 2003 with commissioning scheduled for 2004. Rio would initially source ore for the project from its own reserves and those of fellow iron ore producer Portman Ltd.

Its joint venture partner Nucor consumes about five million tonnes of pig iron annually making it an obvious customer of the HIsmelt product.

Rio Tinto would consider doubling the project's capacity to 1.5 million tonnes a year in 2005, which ultimately could lead to the construction of a steel plant in about 2006/07."


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