“The first tests were successful. Tests with various iron ore concentrates will continue to collect a sound data basis,” the company said in a statement. 

Primetals Technologies and voestalpine are testing the plant builder’s HYFOR ironmaking technology. HYFOR, which stands for hydrogen-based fine-ore reduction, is a hydrogen-based reduction process that can convert fines to iron without the need for intermediary agglomeration processes like sintering or pelletizing.

“HYFOR represents the only process worldwide capable of processing iron ore concentrate fines in which the particle sizes are all smaller than 0.15 mm and a wide variety of ores, such as hematite and magnetite, supplied by different customers of Primetals Technologies worldwide,” the company said. 

According to Primetals Technologies, the pilot-scale plant will be in operation over the next two years and will conduct multiple production campaigns to test various ore types and to evaluate the optimal process parameters for the next scale up step.