PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Macarthur Minerals will trial the integration of hydrogen power at its flagship Lake Giles iron project, in Western Australia.
The company on Tuesday announced that it had inked a strategic partnership and collaboration agreement with Lavo Hydrogen Technology Holding to investigate the facilitation of a staged technology solution to deliver a carbon reduction strategy at Lake Giles.
The first phase roll-out is expected to support early hematite direct shipping ore (DSO) mining operations at Ularring.
Under the agreement, the first phase of the collaboration would involve Macarthur being assigned between three to five patented LAVO 40 kWh hydrogen storage units for integration into the remote worker accommodation facilities, which will support DSO mining operations.
Subject to successful project definition and supporting economics being assessed, the Lavo hydrogen units could be installed as early as the fourth quarter of this year.
If the trial programme proves successful, the two companies would examine developing a fully localized micro-grid engineering solution that would include solar, a centralized hydrogen hydride containerized storage system, and appropriately-sized fuel cells to support the energy requirements for the high-grade magnetite operation at Lake Giles.
Macarthur MD Andrew Bruton said that the collaboration was aimed at enabling the company to achieve a clear carbon reduction strategy for its planned future magnetite operations at Moonshine, as it could allow for potential integration with magnetite processing on a modularized and gradual scale-up basis over a targeted five to ten year time line.
“The first stage of the agreement will allow Macarthur to work with Lavo in the early stages of project planning at Ularring for DSO, so that we can examine opportunities for the scale-up of an integrated hydrogen energy technology solution on site at Moonshine for the magnetite.
“By adopting this staged approach and becoming an early follower, rather than a first adopter, Macarthur will have the opportunity to contain technology, capital and pricing risk so as to ensure that it achieves the lowest possible levelised cost of energy delivery for its magnetite processing.”