Anglo American : partners with Salzgitter Flachstahl to advance green steelmaking

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04 August, 2021

Anglo American has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Salzgitter Flachstahl to collaborate on the decarbonisation of the steelmaking industry by exploring ways to reduce carbon emissions. Salzgitter Flachstahl manufactures a range of high-quality steel products that are optimised for their particular application and is the largest steel subsidiary in the Salzgitter Group.

The two companies intend to conduct research into feed materials, including iron ore pellets and lump iron ores, suitable for use in direct reduction (DR) steelmaking based on natural gas and hydrogen, a significantly less carbon intensive production method than the conventionally used blast furnace (BF) process. The collaboration may also explore developing broader hydrogen technologies.

Peter Whitcutt, CEO of Anglo American's Marketing business, said:

'We have set ambitious targets to help address climate change by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, including achieving carbon neutrality across Anglo American's operations by 2040.

'While steel is a critical building block of our modern lives, and itself a critically needed material for the energy transition, the steel industry is a significant producer of carbon dioxide. That's why we are committed to collaborating with industry-leading players like Salzgitter Flachstahl to develop strategies that capitalise on the premium quality properties of our products to help drive emissions reduction across the entire steelmaking sector.'

The MOU reinforces Anglo American's existing commitments to the steelmaking industry, ensuring that we continue to provide high quality iron ore products that help drive efficiency and minimise emissions while new technologies are developed to achieve lower carbon steelmaking. It also builds on the long-standing relationship between the two companies and provides a platform from which to collaboratively explore opportunities for emissions abatement in the context of the sustainable energy transition.

The European steel industry has been developing new steelmaking technologies to reduce its carbon footprint, with Salzgitter working to produce steel as resource-efficiently as possible under its SALCOS® (Salzgitter Low CO₂ Steelmaking) project. The project is targeting a switch from the use of BF based on coal to wholly DR steelmaking.

Ulrich Grethe, Chairman of the Management Board of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH and member of the Group Management Board of Salzgitter AG said:

'With this project we continue to progress important milestones on the way to low CO₂ steel production. In driving our SALCOS® technology concept forward, we aim to decarbonise steel production as efficiently and quickly as possible. We are delighted to be partnering with Anglo American, our long-standing major supplier of high-grade ores, for joint reflection and potential projects.'

DR steelmaking depends on high-quality iron ore feedstock, such as the materials produced by Anglo American's mines in South Africa and Brazil, or further beneficiated feedstock from the same locations.

Through its platinum group metals market development activities, Anglo American has also been an early promoter of the development of the hydrogen economy, recognising hydrogen's potential to accelerate the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors such as steelmaking, transportation and industrial processing.

For further information, please contact:

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Notes to editors:

Anglo American is a leading global mining company and our products are the essential ingredients in almost every aspect of modern life. Our portfolio of world-class competitive operations, with a broad range of future development options, provides many of the future-enabling metals and minerals for a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that meet the fast growing every day demands of billions of consumers. With our people at the heart of our business, we use innovative practices and the latest technologies to discover new resources and to mine, process, move and market our products to our customers - safely and sustainably.

As a responsible producer of diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum group metals, premium quality iron ore and metallurgical coal for steelmaking, and nickel - with crop nutrients in development - we are committed to being carbon neutral across our operations by 2040. More broadly, our Sustainable Mining Plan commits us to a series of stretching goals to ensure we work towards a healthy environment, creating thriving communities and building trust as a corporate leader. We work together with our business partners and diverse stakeholders to unlock enduring value from precious natural resources for the benefit of the communities and countries in which we operate, for society as a whole, and for our shareholders. Anglo American is re-imagining mining to improve people's lives.

www.angloamerican.com

Forward-looking statements:

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