Metalloinvest-affiliated JV to build 2.1 mil mt/year HBI plant in Russia

London — An enterprise indirectly co-owned by Russian iron ore mining and steel company Metalloinvest has ordered a 2.1 million mt/year hot-briquetted iron plant which it says would be the biggest in the world.

Mikhailovsky HBI, which was jointly established by USM and the Mikhailovsky mining and beneficiation complex (GOK), part of Metalloinvest, has contracted Primetals Technologies and consortium partner Midrex Technologies to supply a new HBI plant, the companies said March 1.

This will be built in Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, west Russia and will produce up to 2.08 million mt/year of HBI once commissioned in H1 2024.

Its design features ensure reduced energy consumption and environmental impact.

"This is the start of an important project for the Russian metals and mining industry that will further strengthen our country's leadership in the global HBI market, the base... for the green metallurgy of the future," USM CEO Ivan Streshinsky said in the statement. The new plant will be built and commissioned in technological cooperation with Metalloinvest, he said.

The Mikhailovsky HBI project will help meet growing demand for low CO2 metallics in the steel industry, according to Stephen Montague, the President and CEO of Midrex, who emphasized that with projects like this one Midrex is playing a significant role in helping steelmakers to decarbonize.

Etsuro Hirai, CEO of Primetals Technologies Austria, said: "This project will include all the latest technological features and will be one of the largest and most modern HBI plants in the world."

The two companies had previously completed the HBI 2 and HBI 3 plants at Lebedinsky GOK, also part of Metalloinvest. The two plants shipped around 4.8 million mt of briquettes last year.

"The new plant will be based on the principles of carbon-free metallurgy, with the prospect of full transitioning to the use of hydrogen as a reducing agent," said Metalloinvest CEO Nazim Efendiev.

Compared to traditional ironmaking technologies, the carbon footprint of a natural gas-based Midrex plant is 50% lower than blast furnace ironmaking. In the future, the contracted plant could be converted to use up to 100% hydrogen as a reducing agent, decreasing its carbon emissions even further.

Investment in the construction of the plant is estimated at over Rb40 billion ($540 million) excluding VAT.

The plant will process pellets to be supplied by Mikhailovsky GOK, which is currently implementing several projects that will boost the quality of its iron ore products and grow output to meet demand for high-quality pellets from the new HBI plant.

Mikhailovsky GOK's development program provides for the launch in 2022 of a concentrate extra enrichment unit with capacity of 16.9 million mt/year of high-quality concentrate for subsequent pellet production at Mikhailovsky's pelletizing plant.

Last year, the enterprise had developed production of premium pellets using Lebedinsky GOK's flotation concentrate, and in the future -- once its own concentrate allows -- it plans to produce up to 3 million mt/tear of such direct reduction-grade pellets.