Anglo American shares were down 1% to 2,657p in early morning trading on Thursday following its announced partnership with Nippon Steel to decarbonise the steelmaking process.
The two companies reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a move to research methods to optimise premium lump ore produced by Anglo American’s mines to decrease emissions created using the traditional blast furnace steelmaking process.
Anglo American commented the partnership would study the use of its iron ore in a more carbon-efficient direct reduction iron (DRI) steelmaking method.
The mining firm claimed the DRI method was estimated to generate significantly lower emissions than the established way of blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces.
The partnership follows Anglo American’s October 2021 Climate Change Report, which included an aim to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2040, building on previous commitments made earlier in the year.
The company said it recognised the steel value chain as key to hitting its goals due to the bulk of its Scope 3 emissions coming from the process.
Anglo American noted its report outlined a holistic approach to achieving its target, and involved working with customers to accelerate the decarbonisation programme across multiple layers to develop high quality products to lower rates of emissions.
“This agreement is an important component of Anglo American’s approach to collaborating with our customers and helping to shape a greener future for the backbone of global infrastructure – steel,” said Anglo American marketing business CEO Puter Whitcutt.
“By working together, we can drive towards system-level decarbonisation and pave the way for sustainable steelmaking, underpinning the steel industry’s full potential as an enabler of society’s wider economic prosperity and social development.”
“We look forward to collaborating on this important work with Nippon Steel, with whom we have a relationship that spans more than five decades, combining our expertise for more efficient and less carbon intensive production processes.”
