Sweden’s H2 Green Steel lines up Vale, Rio Tinto for iron ore supply

H2GS, which plans to build a low-carbon steel plant in Boden in northern Sweden and to start production in 2025, said the contracts with the two miners will help the company convince investors and lenders to commit to financing of its project.

The Swedish company will use a production process known as direct reduced iron (DRI) to cut CO2 emissions by up to 1,900 kilograms per tonne of finished steel compared to traditional blast furnaces, according to an H2GS spokesperson.

H2 Green Steel is also seeking to buy direct reduction pellets – the input material for its steel – from Swedish sources, which would have the advantage of much smaller emissions from transportation.

CEO Henrik Henriksson told Reuters on Wednesday further studies were needed on the Swedish mines’ capacity to ship to H2GS’ plant. He said the company was in talks with several players including LKAB, which operates a mine nearby in Lulea, and Kaunis Iron.

The discussions would continue until the end of this year or early 2024, Henriksson said.

“We have the ambition to have several partners when it comes to the iron ore supply, both for the product in northern Sweden but also to have possibilities for our projects outside Sweden, also to work with these partners,” he said.

H2 Green Steel said in a statement the pellets from Rio Tinto’s joint venture Iron Ore Company of Canada would account for a significant part of the supply to its plant.

The roughly 50 kilograms of extra CO2 from shipping materials from the Americas rather than Sweden is insignificant compared with the reduction in emissions from DRI compared with traditional steel production, Henriksson said.

“Long term, we need to find ways to get rid of those 50 kilos, but short term it’s a smaller part of the big impact we are doing,” he said.

The company did not disclose the value of the deals with Vale and Rio Tinto.