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Australia needs to keep pace with energy policies promoted by other countries to make the most of the benefits of green energy, the head of the energy unit at Fortescue Metals Group said on Monday, detailing five projects it wants to develop.
The US Inflation Act has been met with policy responses from a range of jurisdictions including the European Union, Canada, the Gulf states and India.
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“What we’d like to see is really some of the incentives incorporated into a bilateral (deal) with certain countries, for example Germany,” said Mark Hutchinson, CEO of Fortescue Future Industries, adding that it should closely match the incentives in the US Inflation Act. .
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His comments echo those of the CEOs of major global mining company BHP Group and major Australian independent gas producers Woodside Energy and Santos.
He said that the major iron ore company is building a new project as it seeks to become one of the largest producers of clean energy, with the aim of approving five major development projects by the end of the year in Norway, Brazil, Kenya and the United States, in Arizona and Texas. .
In Norway and Kenya, FFI is looking to build 300-megawatt facilities, with hydroelectric and geothermal power to power the electrolyzer to split water and make green hydrogen, which will then be used to make ammonia.
In Norway, this will be exported to Europe, while in Kenya it will be composted for local farmers.
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US projects will produce green hydrogen for energy.
Flat iron ore output
On Monday, Fortescue reported flat shipments of iron ore in the March quarter, while costs jumped 12%, but it maintained shipment guidance for the full year despite this month’s hurricane that disrupted exports from the iron ore hub of Australia.
Shares in the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner fell as much as 5.3%, pulling back from a 2.2% drop in the broader mining sector amid a drop in iron ore prices to their lowest in nearly four months on demand concerns.
Fortescue said it produced the first wet concentrate from its Iron Bridge Magnetite processing facility in Western Australia on April 22, after several delays and a cost explosion. It did not confirm whether shipments would go ahead by June.
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The miner shipped 46.3 million tons of the steelmaking commodity in the three months ending March 2023, compared to 46.5 million tons a year earlier.
It left its shipment guidance for the year ending June 2023 unchanged at 187 million tons to 192 million tons.
The company’s C1 cost, which represents direct production costs for iron ore, rose to $17.73 per wet metric ton (wmt) from $15.78 in the quarter, while it maintained the cost forecast for hematite at $18.00 – $18.75 per wt.
The company said it sold its crude at an average price of $109 a dry metric ton (dmt) in the March quarter, at a 13% discount to the Platts’ 62% CFR average for the quarter.
Fortescue said it aims to start mining at the Belinga Iron Ore project in Gabon in the second half of 2023.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Saviata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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