Magnum Mining and Exploration (ASX: MGU) has signed an agreement with Swedish company Wickers Group for the joint development of a novel combination of technologies to produce pulp, bio-chemicals and “green” pig iron.
The two-year agreement will see the companies collaborate on projects that combine a pulp and paper plant with the HIsmelt direct smelting process to produce pulp, lumber, bio-chemicals and pig iron in Europe and North America.
They will use a co-product known as biochar in the HIsmelt plant to smelt iron ore and produce green pig iron, with further synergies achieved through the transfer of excess steam from the smelting process to provide heat for the plant.
Magnum non-executive director Neil Goodman welcomed the agreement.
“Wickers has developed a combination of existing technologies to produce pulp and lumber from pulp timber and forestry waste and co-produce biochar, green fertiliser, bio-alcohol, proteins and biogenic carbon dioxide,” he said.
“The biochar will be a great reductant for a HIsmelt furnace that will smelt iron ore and steel plant waste to produce green pig iron and, as an extra bonus, the HIsmelt plant will produce excess steam from waste gas, which can be fed back to the pulp plant to provide heat for the processes.”
Wickers chief executive officer Mikael Carlsson said the company looked forward to working with Magnum.
“We look forward to developing synergies between our pulp and paper technologies and HIsmelt technology,” he said.
“We call this combination the ‘BioCombine’ and our teams have started working together to attract investors and industry partners and investigate potential sites for a world-first BioCombine plant.”
Magnum form a joint venture (JV) with Indian private company 2×1.Digital Private in August for the trading, production and supply of biochar, iron ore and green pig iron in Malaysia.
Magnum expects the JV and proposed integrated business in Malaysia to complement its existing global activities, including the proposed establishment of a green pig iron project in Saudi Arabia.
That project will involve the construction of a HIsmelt plant to be fed by steel mill waste augmented by magnetite from Magnum’s proposed Buena Vista mine in the US.
Mr Goodman said negotiations with a Saudi steelmaking company were progressing well.
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