“Simply digging and shipping has worked very well for Australia in recent decades. But now is a good time for Australia to seriously think about what its iron ore sector needs to look like going forward,” the institute said. 

One possibility, it said, is to shift toward mining more magnetite, which is more easily processed into pellet suitable for direct-reduction furnaces.  

“With green hydrogen exports looking structurally expensive, there is an opportunity to process Australian high-grade ore, using domestically produced green hydrogen, into ‘green iron’ for export to steelmakers globally. South Australia is now leading nationally with its new Green Iron and Steel Strategy and the launch of an Expressions of Interest process for a new DRI project using the state’s high-grade iron ore reserves,” the institute said. 

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