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    Rio Tinto IOC Receives $13M+ from Canadian Government to Decarbonize Iron Ore Processing Operations

    Feb. 28, 2024
    The IOC will install an electric boiler, instrumentation, and fuel-efficient burners to displace emissions from its heavy fuel oil boilers and reduce heavy fuel oil consumption
    Photo 3289938, Mark Eastment, Dreamstime.com
    65df62c7de645e001ec8e0f6 Photo 3289938 Mark Eastment Dreamstime

    The Government of Canada has awarded more than $13 million from its Low Carbon Economy Fund to Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) to support decarbonizing its iron ore processing operations at Labrador West.

    With the funding, the IOC will reduce the amount of heavy fuel oil consumed to produce its iron ore pellets and concentrate.

    To achieve this, the company will install an electric boiler, instrumentation, and fuel-efficient burners to displace emissions from its heavy fuel oil boilers and reduce heavy fuel oil consumption from its induration machines.

    Over the project’s lifetime, IOC will experience a reduction of nearly 2.2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

    “Rio Tinto IOC has a plan to decarbonize and continue producing some of the lowest carbon-intensity high-grade iron ore products in the world. This project alone will eliminate approximately 9% of IOC’s greenhouse gas emissions. We look forward to collaborating with the Government of Canada and other partners towards our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050,” said Mike McCann, IOC President and CEO.

    Equipment installation will begin in Q2 2024 and be completed in early 2025. The IOC projects it will create more than 100 jobs during the construction and implementation stages in Labrador West.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.