Australian miner Fortescue reveals dollar 6point2 billion carbon plan

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Australian minerFortescue reveals $6.2 billion carbon plan

Australianiron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group announced on Tuesday a $6.2 billion plan to eliminate fossilfuels and carbon emissions from its operations by the end of the decade.

The world’sfourth-largest iron ore producer expects to save $818 million a year from 2030based on current prices of diesel, gas and carbon credits, said a Fortescuestatement to the Australian Securities Exchange. Most of the spending isplanned for 2024-28. It includes an additional 2-to-3 gigawatts of renewableenergy generation and battery storage as well as a green mining fleet of trucksand trains.

The targetby 2030 of “real zero terrestrial emissions” - no fossil fuels and withonly temporary, if any, offsets -- would prevent 3 million metric tons (3.3million U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions ayear.The target by 2030 of “real zero terrestrial emissions” -- nofossil fuels and with only temporary, if any, offsets -- would prevent 3million metric tons (3.3 million U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide-equivalentgreenhouse gas emissions a year.

Fortescue isa member of the First Movers Coalition, a platform launched by the U.S.State Department and the World Economic Forum last year for companies toharness their buying power and supply chains to nurture early markets forinnovative clean energy technologies.

Last week,Samsung Electronics announced it was shifting away from fossil fuels and aimingto entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050. Fortescuechairman Andrew Forrest said Fortescue, based in Perth, Western Australiastate, was already benefiting financially from a decarbonization policythat began two years ago.

The newdecarbonization strategy has “set an example that a post-fossil fuel era isgood commercial common sense,” Forrest said in a statement. “There’s nodoubt that the energy landscape has changed dramatically over the past twoyears and this change has accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine,”Forrest said.

“Consistentwith Fortescue’s disciplined approach to capital allocation, this investment inrenewable energy and decarbonization is expected to generate attractiveeconomic returns for our shareholders through energy cost savings and a sharpreduction in carbon offset purchases, together with a lower risk-cost profileand improvement in the integrity of our assets,” Forrest added.

Last week,Samsung Electronics announced it was shifting away from fossil fuels and aimingto entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050.Fortescuechairman Andrew Forrest said Fortescue, based in Perth, Western Australiastate, was already benefiting financially from a decarbonization policy thatbegan two years ago.