Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that the Canadian government has awarded C$1.8 million from its Low Carbon Economy Fund to the company’s joint venture Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) to support the decarbonization of iron ore processing at its operations in Labrador West.
The given funding, which will represent approximately 25 percent of the total cost of the project, will enable IOC to install an electric boiler and fuel-efficient burners with the aim to reduce the amount of heavy fuel oil that is consumed in the production of iron ore pellets and concentrate. Over the lifetime of this project, IOC will see a cumulative reduction of about 2.2 million mt of greenhouse gas emissions.
Installation of the new equipment will begin in the second quarter of 2024 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. The project will create more than 100 jobs during the construction and implementation stages in Labrador West.