AUSTRALIA

Fortescue approves $750 million investment for three green projects

Reuters | November 20, 2023 

Credit: Fortescue Future Industries

Australia’s Fortescue on Tuesday approved an estimated total investment of about $750 million over the next three years for two green energy projects and one green steel project as the iron ore miner seeks to become a top-tier clean energy producer.


Fortescue approved investments in the US hydrogen hub in Phoenix, Arizona; the Gladstone 50 megawatt green hydrogen project in Queensland, Australia; and the Christmas Creek green iron trial commercial plant in Western Australia.

About $550 million will be used for developing an electrolyser and liquefaction facility in Phoenix, where first production of liquid green hydrogen is targeted for 2026.

The world’s fourth-largest iron ore maker, which is expanding into production of hydrogen from renewable resources under its Fortescue Energy unit, said it had also decided to fast-track projects in Brazil, Kenya and Norway.

Fortescue is intensifying its push into the US markets.

In the past few days, it has announced plans to set up an advanced manufacturing centre in Michigan and an office in New York, Fortescue Capital, to attract more investment to its green energy companies.

Under a plan to ramp up its green energy business, Fortescue said in August it would stop allocating 10% of its net profit to that unit. Instead, projects and investments would compete for capital allocation, with additional flows from outside investors.

Fortescue expects to hold stakes of 25% to 50% in projects with outside investors.

More details are expected to be unveiled at Fortescue’s annual shareholder meeting later on Tuesday.

(By Himanshi Akhand; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Richard Chang)

Fortescue sets up investment platform to fund green energy projects

Reuters | November 16, 2023 |

Andrew Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Future Industries. tours the outdoor Hydrogen Fueling Station and Bioreactor at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (Image by Joe DelNero, courtesy of NREL).

Australia’s Fortescue said on Thursday it has launched a new investment platform to attract more investment in its green energy projects as the miner pivots towards establishing itself as a major global supplier of green energy.


New York-based Fortescue Capital will be led by Robert Tichio and act as a fiduciary for third-party capital to complement the company’s finance teams in its energy and metals division, Fortescue said.


“Fortescue is taking its global pipeline of green hydrogen and green ammonia projects to final investment decision and in doing so, has communicated our intention and desire to bring additional equity investors onboard,” Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchinson said.

The funding model for projects will differ based on the project and Fortescue expects to hold stakes of between 25% and 50% stake in projects with outside investors, the company said.

Fortescue, in recent years, has significantly stepped up its investment in renewable projects to cash in on the global transition towards green energy and decarbonization, but that has led to an exodus of high-level management and raised investor concerns.

Tichio joins Fortescue after over 17 years at Riverstone Holdings, a New York-based private equity firm. He will be joined by a leadership team with backgrounds across sustainable infrastructure, climate technology, energy and private markets.

(By Roshan Thomas; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Savio D’Souza)

AUSTRALIA
Leadership doubts threaten Fortescue founder’s green reinvention

Bloomberg News | September 7, 2023 |

Andrew Forrest, chairman and founder of Fortescue Metals Group

Credit: World Economic Forum

Three years after he first embarked on a mission to transform an iron ore giant into a clean-energy powerhouse, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. founder Andrew Forrest is facing a governance storm that may yet imperil his green ambitions.


Last week, in an unexpected move, chief executive officer Fiona Hick resigned from the world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer after less than six months in the role. Two more senior leaders in the group were soon gone, including Guy Debelle, the high-profile former deputy governor at Australia’s central bank, raising difficult questions that are now dominating post-earnings meetings between Fortescue executives and investors.

While Forrest and the executives have discussed few details, the sudden departures — the first announced shortly before Fortescue’s annual earnings — have resurfaced long-simmering questions over the billionaire’s leadership, and whether his sweeping green plans are at odds with the priorities of a lucrative core business. Iron ore still provides nearly all of Fortescue’s $17 billion of annual revenue, even in the face of a sputtering Chinese economy.

“It really is a cause for concern for Fortescue shareholders about what is going on at a board and management level,” said Gavin Wendt, founding director of industry analyst MineLife, though he added the core business was still operating well. “Shareholders and the market want to see board stability, coherent decision-making, and consistency. They’re not really getting that.”

Fortescue has declined to comment on the meetings or specific concerns, but Forrest himself has brushed worries about exits or China’s property sector aside.

In an interview with Bloomberg this week, he cited the need for focus as the company tries to reinvent itself: “They were good people, but we need constant alignment of interest,” he said. “It’s difficult to grow a new industry, and it’s difficult to break into a new industry while you’re growing.”

He said the number of departures — in quick succession — was also not a concern as new talent would be brought in: “We’re upgrading all the time.”

Investors are less sanguine.

Some interviewed by Bloomberg, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to discuss individual holdings publicly, said they were concerned about cash being ploughed into Fortescue Energy, the green arm established in 2020, and the impact of turnover at the top. They also expressed unease over a perceived lack of transparency in the company’s governance.

Management turnover increases reliance on Forrest’s leadership and heightens “key man” risk, Bloomberg Intelligence senior credit analyst Mary Ellen Olson wrote in a note. “These concerns could weaken investor sentiment and hurt valuations.”

Fortescue’s shares have fallen about 7% since their close on Aug. 25, ahead of Hick’s resignation and annual profit figures dented by China’s disappointing post-Covid rebound.

Analysts from UBS AG, who have already met with Fortescue executives this week, said leadership changes, capital allocation and the economics of energy projects had dominated the discussion.

“FMG explained that while former CEO Fiona Hick and CFO Christine Morris were highly regarded, the fit had not worked,” analysts including Lachlan Shaw said in a note. “A quick response was seen as in the best interests of shareholders and governance.”

Bloomberg wasn’t immediately able to reach Morris or Hick. In a LinkedIn post, Hick said: “I have valued the experience at Fortescue and I thank the company and its people for the opportunity.” Debelle, who was CFO of the energy arm, declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.

Green giant

Forrest is an Australian mining heavyweight with a storied history. The great-nephew of Baron John Forrest, the first premier of Western Australia state, he transformed a fledgling resources explorer into Fortescue, an iron ore giant. The company built a new mine, port and railway in Western Australia just as China’s infrastructure boom sent commodity prices rocketing, transforming him into Australia’s richest man.

Now, as part of a climate commitment he attributes to four years spent studying marine biology — he gained a Ph.D in 2019 — Forrest wants to produce 15 million tons globally of green hydrogen using renewable power by 2030. That equates to nearly half of the total global supply anticipated by BloombergNEF that year. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, he’s gunning for a hydropower and green hydrogen project that would be the biggest renewables project in Africa.

Even laudable ambitions are hard to push through when structural economic changes in China are raising questions over the company’s core iron ore business, which expanded on the back of a then-surging property sector now in the doldrums.

And yet, along with annual results, Fortescue dropped a policy to allocate 10% of earnings to the green-energy arm. Now, metals and energy projects will compete for capital on an equal basis.

Leap of faith

The firm’s reputation for capital discipline seems to have “gone out the window” with the green-energy push, said David Coates, analyst at Bell Potter Securities Ltd. Jefferies Inc. analysts wrote in a note there was now the risk of a strategy that “prioritizes projects that have relatively low returns” versus higher-returning mining projects.

Fortescue’s capital expenditure for the current financial year will be between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion, of which $400 million will go to clean energy, according to Fortescue. The latter figure doesn’t, however, include hydrogen investments, which are expected to be announced later this year.

The UBS analysts said Fortescue executives had described the removal of the 10% rule as a “natural evolution” as the company approached final decisions on a range of energy projects which should compete on their merits. The company is set to decide on five hydrogen or ammonia projects this year.

Forrest, meanwhile, is to be found doubling down. A Perth speech last week, posted online and cited widely by investors and analysts, did little to assuage concerns over the extent of the founder’s fervour for the green businesses. “Individual ambition comes second because what I’m talking about is the future of humanity,” he said, addressing his own “galloping herd” of employees.

He appealed to world leaders before discoursing at length on the ravages caused by extreme temperatures on the human body to an audience including former People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

“The bulls will argue that Fortescue has proven the skeptics wrong in the past as many in the market dismissed the company’s chance of success in iron ore early on,” the Jefferies note said, “but to buy FMG now requires some new leaps of faith.”

(By Jason Scott and Sybilla Gross, with assistance from Martin Ritchie and David Stringer)

Fortescue says executive exodus reflects green shift

Bloomberg News | September 6, 2023 

Andrew Forrest, Australian billionaire and Chief Executive Officer of Fortescue. (Credit: Fortescue Metals Group)

A clutch of executive-level departures at Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. is linked to the need to focus on its break into the green-energy industry, the company’s billionaire founder said.


The comments from Andrew Forrest during an interview in Nairobi come after three high-profile executives left the company last week, including former Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Guy Debelle. Fiona Hick, chief executive officer of the iron ore division, and Christine Morris, the chief financial officer for metals, have also left.

Fortescue, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner, last month reported an 11% drop in profits, and investors are bracing for a sharp increase in spending as Forrest spearheads a move to make the company a green hydrogen pioneer. He declined to comment on the specific reasons for the departures, but pointed to a need to maintain focus within the company.

“They were good people, but we need constant alignment of interest,” Forrest said. “It’s difficult to grow a new industry, and it’s difficult to break into a new industry while you’re growing.”

Forrest also hinted at further potential departures, as he referred back to earlier plans to appoint a dozen new executives to facilitate the push into green energy, which will include investments in geothermal power, hydrogen production and the decarbonization of the miner’s vehicle fleet.

“If you talk about the C-suite, we’re nowhere near 12, and we’re upgrading all the time,” he said.

The drop in the Perth-based company’s full-year profits reflect the struggles of iron ore miners as China’s economic slowdown weighs on demand for the steelmaking material. Since reaching a year-high peak in July, Fortescue’s shares have fallen more than 15% in Sydney.

With earnings dropping from its main cash cow, Fortescue announced last week that it was abandoning an earlier policy of spending 10% of profits on the green energy arm, with metals and energy projects to compete for capital on an equal basis. Capital expenditure would be between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion for the current fiscal year through June 30, of which $400 million would go to the clean-energy arm.

(By Eric Ombok and Mark Burton, with assistance from Jason Scott)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Fortescue 

 

Fortescue and China Cosco Cooperate on Ammonia-Fueled Ships

The ammonia-powered OSV Fortescue Green Pioneer, the first vessel of its type (Fortescue)

Published Jul 29, 2024 11:03 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

China Cosco, the world's largest shipowner, has agreed to work with Australian mining conglomerate Fortescue to build a new series of bulkers powered by green ammonia. The ships would be used to transport Fortescue's iron ore to China, without onboard emissions.

"The cooperation marks another big step in decarbonizing the shipping industry," said Fortescue in a statement. "These solutions will be integral to achieving our net zero Scope 3 emission target by 2040."

Fortescue already operates the world's first tested ammonia dual-fuel vessel, the OSV Fortescue Green Pioneer. In March, the ship underwent its first trial burning a combination of ammonia and diesel fuel at the Port of Singapore. 

Fortescue has ambitious plans to eliminate its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030, and it views China as an essential partner. Chinese steel mills are the primary customers for Fortescue's iron ore exports, and the Australian company wants China's support in decarbonizing its operations. 

Just last month, Fortescue welcomed Chinese Premier Li Qiang to its green-tech test center in Perth for a tour of zero-emission locomotives, hydrogen-powered trucks and ammonia-fueled engines. The key to the pitch, though, is to partially process the ore in Australia - making "green iron" - and then ship the product to China to turn into steel.

"Our proposed Australia-Sino green iron metal supply chain will bring together mining powered by large-scale renewable power and green hydrogen to produce green iron metal. Our ambition is to provide 100 million tonnes of green iron metal to China each year, eliminating more than 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions," Fortescue chairman and founder Andrew Forrest said in June.

However, Fortescue recently walked back its plans to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, citing the rising cost of green electric power. It has withdrawn from marquee developments like the "Project Coyote" hydrogen plant in British Columbia, which ran into political difficulties over its need for massive amounts of electricity from hydropower. 

On Monday, Fortescue's stock price fell by nine percent on news that a large institutional investor had put $1.2 billion worth of the company's outstanding shares up for sale as a block, equivalent to three percent of Fortescue's share volume. Bloomberg has identified the investor as Capital Group. 
 

 

Fortescue chairman Forrest doubles down on renewables in challenge to Trump

Reuters | September 25, 2025 |

Andrew Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Future Industries. tours the outdoor Hydrogen Fueling Station and Bioreactor at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (Image by Joe DelNero, courtesy of NREL).

Australian miner Fortescue is experiencing strong interest in its decarbonization-related offerings, executive chairman Andrew Forrest said in an interview, as he challenged US President Donald Trump’s claim that climate change is the “greatest con job” in the world.

Fortescue has set some of the most ambitious decarbonization targets among Australia’s major miners, but was recently forced to walk away from some planned green hydrogen projects. The company, the world’s fourth-largest miner of iron ore, attributed the cancellation of a project in Arizona in part to a shift in US policy away from green energy.

However, Forrest said he was not willing to give up despite mounting criticism of climate-driven initiatives by Trump, who on Tuesday dismissed climate change during his address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Speaking on board Fortescue’s Green Pioneer, which the company says is the world’s first ship capable of running on green ammonia and diesel, Forrest condemned Trump’s statement and challenged the president to debate him, even if it takes place in a courtroom.

“Sue me, but I’m saying you have no basis of fact to say that,” the billionaire, who ranked among Australia’s richest people, said.

“I sailed (the Green Pioneer) into the middle of the lion’s den to make the point that I’d much rather be getting my fuel from the air, from the sun, from the wind, which is going to be infinite, than I would from drill, baby, drill,” Forrest said.

Earlier on Thursday, Fortescue said it acquired Spanish wind technology company Nabrawind and signed an agreement for the purchase of wind turbines from Envision Energy. Those deals will help accelerate the deployment of renewable energy across Fortescue’s operations, Forrest said.

Fortescue also said it would deploy a fleet of 300 to 400 battery-powered mining trucks capable of hauling 240-metric-ton loads, with deliveries planned from 2028 to 2030. Chinese mining equipment maker XCMG will supply up to half the trucks, while German-Swiss equipment manufacturer Liebherr will supply the remainder, the company said.

Fortescue’s order book for battery-powered trucks developed in partnership with Liebherr is strong, Forrest said, without providing further details.

The miner was likely to exceed its target of reaching 2 to 3 gigawatts of renewable energy generation and storage in its domestic iron ore operations by 2030, Forrest said.

“We will probably do more than that because we’re getting more people wanting to join in,” Forrest said.

(By Shariq Khan; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

An Aussie tycoon bets billions on cleaning up iron ore giant


By AFP
September 26, 2025


The ammonia-powered Green Pioneer is an emblem of Fortescue's climate ambitions - Copyright AFP Issam AHMED

Issam AHMED

Moored off a Manhattan pier for New York’s annual Climate Week is one of the world’s first ammonia-powered vessels — a green flagship for an Australian tycoon’s drive to decarbonize his mining empire.

Even as President Donald Trump’s second term has triggered environmental backtracking among many corporations, iron ore giant Fortescue — founded by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest — is investing billions to clean up its dirty operations.

“We’re a huge polluter right now,” he told AFP in an interview aboard the Green Pioneer, a 75-meter former oil-rig supply ship given a swish makeover. “But we’re changing so fast, and within five years, we’ll stop burning fossil fuels.”

The Green Pioneer is meant to be the first in a fleet of ammonia-powered ships.

Ammonia contains what Forrest calls the “miracle molecule” — hydrogen — which burns to produce harmless nitrogen and water, though incomplete combustion of ammonia can still generate a greenhouse gas.

– ‘Real Zero,’ not offsets –

At 63, Forrest has become a fixture at global summits, rubbing shoulders with leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as he evangelizes his climate vision.

Where other companies tout green credentials by buying carbon credits — generated through nature protection or carbon-removal projects for example — to claim “net zero,” Forrest dismisses the practice as a scam.

“Carbon credits have already been proved by science to be next to worthless,” said Forrest, whose net worth Forbes pegs at more than $16 billion. “That’s why we go ‘Real Zero.'”

Achieving genuine decarbonization by 2030 is no small feat, particularly in one of the world’s dirtiest industries.

Fortescue’s plan involves replacing diesel-powered mining equipment with electric excavators and drills; building vast wind, solar and battery farms to power operations; and running battery-powered haul trucks.

Further along the value chain, the company wants to process its own iron ore — the stage responsible for the lion’s share of emissions — using “green hydrogen” produced by splitting water molecules with renewable electricity, instead of coke or thermal coal.

“Fortescue’s climate commitments are certainly different to most other corporations, including its peers in the iron ore mining sector” such as Rio Tinto and BHP, Simon Nicholas, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’ lead analyst for global steel told AFP.

“It has a ‘green iron’ pilot plant under construction in Australia which will use green hydrogen. The company is aiming to eventually process all of its iron ore into iron for export — about 100 million tonnes a year” — and even getting close to those targets would be transformative, said Nicholas.

– Technical challenges –

But he cautioned that the technological hurdles remain immense: green hydrogen is still expensive, and the pilot plant must prove it can handle lower-grade ore.

Then there’s the inherent ecological cost of mining. “If you destroy parts of a forest, including its soils, for your mining operation, even if you don’t use fossil fuels for your operations, you will not be ‘true zero,'” Oscar Soria, co-director of The Common Initiative think tank told AFP.

Forrest’s outlook is grounded in his personal journey.

Raised in the Australian Outback, where he earned the nickname “Twiggy” for his skinny childhood frame, he got his start in finance before taking over a company and renaming it Fortescue Metals Group in 2003.

Forrest said his environmental commitment deepened after a hiking accident in 2014 left him temporarily wheelchair-bound. Encouraged by his children, he returned to university and completed a PhD in marine ecology.

“That convinced me I’ve got to put every fiber of my being into arresting this threat so much bigger than any geostrategic issues, so much bigger than politics, so much bigger than anything,” he said.

Climate now sits at the heart of his philanthropic Minderoo Foundation.

And while the Trump administration derides the “green scam” as economically catastrophic, Forrest insists the opposite is true, pointing to Fortescue’s financial record.

“Don’t accuse us of being unbusiness-like. We’re the most business-like in the world.”

AUSTRALIA

Fortescue to step up energy spending despite job cuts

Reuters | July 24, 2024 |

Andrew Forrest, Australian billionaire and founder of Fortescue. (Credit: Fortescue Metals Group)

Australia’s Fortescue said on Thursday it will increase spending on its energy division to advance several new green hydrogen projects next year, disappointing analysts who had expected a company restructure to lower its capital outlay.


The world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner has brought its metals and green energy businesses back together after it split them into separate divisions a year ago amid an exodus of senior management that cast doubt on whether the green unit was on track deliver against stretch targets.

Last week, Fortescue announced it would shed 4.5% of its global workforce and said it was unlikely to meet 2030 targets for green hydrogen production. The cuts also come as the price of iron ore, Fortescue’s main profit driver, is forecast to fall back below $100 a tonne.

Fortescue cuts 700 jobs, slows down green hydrogen plans

Analysts said that suggested Fortescue was slowing down the speed of its hydrogen development but on Thursday, it reaffirmed its commitment to the sector.

Its focus will initially be on four projects in Australia, the United States, Norway and Brazil with additional projects in Morocco, Oman, Egypt and Jordan to follow.

Fortescue still plans to boost capital expenditures at its energy division to $500 million, up from initial plans to spend $300 million, and its net operating expenditure to around $700 million next year, up from as much as $500 million anticipated in 2024.

“Good operational performance but market might be marginally disappointed by still high FMG Energy spend in FY25,” analysts at Citi said in a report.

Analysts also flagged a jump in decarbonization spending to $700 million-$900 million for fiscal 2025 from $300 million-$500 million this year as the miner seeks to meet aggressive net-zero targets by 2030.

Shares in Fortescue fell 2.7%, outpacing smaller losses among other Australian miners.

Fortescue plans to raise its focus on producing green iron, or iron produced with a lower carbon footprint, CEO Dino Otranto told a news briefing from China where he has been talking with potential partners for joint projects.

“Pivoting to producing green iron metal is the next step for us, and we see a massive potential in green iron industry out of Australia, supplying China,” he said.

Fortescue plans to produce green iron from its Christmas Creek operations before the end of next year.

The miner forecast higher iron ore shipments for the fiscal year ending in June 2025 and said for the fourth quarter of 2024 shipments of the steel-making material rose 24% from the third quarter to a quarterly record of 53.7 million metric tons.

It now expects to ship between 190 million tons and 200 million tons of iron ore in fiscal year 2025, up from 191.6 million tons shipped in fiscal year 2024.

(By Ayushman Ojha and Melanie Burton; Editing by Devika Syamnath, Alan Barona and Christian Schmollinger)

FE

Fortescue ends bitter green iron battle with Element Zero

Cecilia Jamasmie | November 26, 2025 | 

Fortescue’s founder and largest shareholder, Andrew Forrest. (Image: Fortescue Metals Group.)

Australia’s Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has agreed to settle its high-stakes lawsuit accusing former executives of stealing company data to build their green iron start-up Element Zero.

The iron ore miner had claimed that former chief scientist Bart Kolodziejczyk and former technology development lead Bjorn Winther-Jensen used green iron technology they helped develop while at Fortescue to form Element Zero.

Company lawyers argued the work was tied to Fortescue’s broader push for hydrogen-based solutions in its pursuit of what it called the green ore holy grail. Element Zero chief executive Michael Masterman, also a former Fortescue employee, was named in the case.

The spat intensified as Fortescue used private investigators who produced surveillance reports that included photographs of children and private homes, details taken from rifled mail and tracking of family members. The company also won court approval for raids on the homes and offices of Element Zero principals, leading to the seizure of about 9 million documents.

Hole in the pocket

Fortescue hit a major setback last month when Federal Court Justice Brigitte Markovic rejected its push to access all of Element Zero’s work, something the miner’s own counsel had argued in September was needed to run the case.

“We are delighted to put this episode behind us,” Masterman said in a statement. “We can now focus all of our deep and capable technical resources on rapidly advancing our iron-ore-to-iron technology and developing our manufacturing sites in the Pilbara heartland of Port Hedland and in the US.”

Element Zero said each side would cover its own expenses.

The start-up’s $10 million in funding has been heavily depleted by its legal defence, leaving it in need of far more capital to prove commercial viability and build its planned manufacturing sites. The outcome raises the question of whether Fortescue would have been better off taking a stake in the venture instead of dragging its former executives through court.

Fortescue’s Forrest doesn’t get the hype over critical minerals

Kristie Batten | October 31, 2025 |

L-R Fortescue CEO metals Dino Otranto, executive chairman Andrew Forrest and CEO growth and energy Gus Pichot. (Photo by Kristie Batten.)

Fortescue (ASX: FMG) founder and executive chairman Andrew Forrest said on Friday that the company was progressing critical minerals projects despite not understanding the “fuss” surrounding the strategic metals.

Speaking at Fortescue’s annual general meeting in Perth, Forrest said the company remained committed to its critical minerals projects but questioned the hype following a deal signed by US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on October 20.

“It was good. Knock yourselves out. I mean, I don’t see anything that rare about critical minerals,” Forrest told reporters following the meeting. 

“You’ve got declining strategic commodity prices everywhere. I don’t see the fuss, but anyway, other people do so it’s good for the business. We’ve got plenty of critical minerals, which we’re happy to get out of the ground.”

Despite downplaying the sector, Forrest admitted Fortescue was exploring for rare earths in Brazil, where CEO of growth and energy Gus Pichot had discovered “buckets” of material.

“There’s nothing rare about rare earths. [Pichot’s] got a small ocean of it,” he said. “I’d like to see it developed and cranking across to Louisiana and getting developed.”

His comments coincided with Fortescue’s wholly owned subsidiary Wyloo Metals and joint venture partner Hastings Technology Metals (ASX: HAS) signing a non-binding agreement with Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV: UCU). They will explore a long-term offtake agreement for concentrate from the Yangibana project in Western Australia and hydrometallurgical processing options in Louisiana.

Failure key

Forrest reaffirmed Fortescue’s commitment to achieving real zero emissions by 2030, defending the company’s investment in decarbonization.

“This $6.2 billion investment we took back in 2022 will pay dividends. I give you my assurance and sure, we’re the guys up front with the arrows in the back, to be dragged down and told we failed here, we failed there,” Forrest told the meeting. 

“Honestly, it just put steel into the spine of the 20,000 people who work at Fortescue getting constantly criticized. Decarbonization is not a straight line. It demands creativity, experimentation and relentless innovation. We’ve literally had to invent our way through.”

Fortescue has walked away from some of its green hydrogen projects amid weak economics, but Forrest said trying and failing was the “fast track to success.”

“We specialized into hydrogen, believing it would get really big – it hasn’t yet,” Forrest said. “What is enormous is replacing fossil fuel-generated energy with renewables, firmed by the breakthrough we’ve all seen in batteries. That is a crossover point in history, and that’s beginning to happen.”

Forrest conceded there had been job losses in its green energy division but said Fortescue was creating jobs elsewhere.

“I don’t know the net number, but we’re swinging harder and harder into R&D. That is where the value is,” he said. 

“We’ve got smartest people in the world working for us. Other people can do spectacular manufacturing. We did what we said we’d do. We’d see if we could compete on manufacturing. We couldn’t, but we can definitely compete on R&D.”

Trump, big oil criticized

Forrest also took aim at big oil companies and Trump, accusing them of dividing the world on climate change.

“You’ve got a President of the United States who declared that climate change is the greatest con job in history, straight in the face of massive investment by some of the smartest people I will ever meet,” he said.

“We’ve got these two stories unfolding, one of progress, one of retraction. One side is racing to deploy renewables at record speed. The other is changing to a view of a romanticized past that never even existed as their own economics fall away.”

His comments followed rival Hancock Prospecting’s annual results on Thursday, when CEO Garry Korte warned that Australia could not afford the cost of reaching net zero.

Forrest dismissed the claim. “All I can say is that we’re seeing economic growth. We’re seeing investment … so trying to pedal yourself back to a utopian history which never existed anyway is not a way to grow an economy,” he said.

Mr President, Take Our Critical Minerals: Albanese in the White House

by Binoy Kampmark / October 28th, 2025

The October 20 performance saw few transgressions and many feats of compliance. As a guest in the White House, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in no mood to be combative, and US President Donald Trump was accommodating. There was, however, an odd nervous glance shot at the host at various points.

The latest turn of events from the perspective of those believing in Australian sovereignty, pitifully withered as it is, remains dark. In an attempt to seize a share of a market currently dominated by China, Albanese has willingly placed Australia’s rare earths and critical minerals at the disposal of US strategic interests. The framework document focusing on mining and processing of such minerals is drafted with the hollow language of counterfeit equality. The objective “is to assist both countries in achieving resilience and security of minerals and rare earths supply chains, including mining, separation and processing”. The necessity of securing such supply is explicitly noted for reasons of war or, as the document notes, “necessary to support manufacturing of defense and advanced technologies” for both countries.

The US and Australia will draw on the money bags of the private sector to supplement government initiatives (guarantees, loans, equity and so forth), an incentive that will cause much salivating joy in the mining industry. Within 6 months “measures to provide at least $1 billion in financing to projects located in each of the United States and Australia expected to generate end product for delivery to buyers in the United States and Australia.”

The inequality of the agreement does not bother such analysts as Bryce Wakefield, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He mysteriously thinks that Albanese did not “succumb to the routine sycophancy we’ve come to expect from other leaders”, something of a “win”. With the skill of a cabalist, he identified the benefits in the critical minerals framework which he thinks will be “the backbone for joint investment in at least six Australian projects.” The agreement would “counter China’s dominance over rare earths and supply chains.”

Much of what was agreed between Trump and Albanese was barely covered by the sleepwalking press corps, despite the details of a White House factsheet. There were more extorting deals extracted from Canberra, with agreements to purchase US$1.2 billion in Anduril unmanned underwater vehicles and US$2.6 billion worth of Apache helicopters. Of particular significance was the agreement to push Australia’s superannuation funds to increase investments in the US to US$1.44 trillion by 2035, which would increase the pool by US$1 trillion. “This unprecedented investment will create tens of thousands of new, high paying jobs for Americans.”

Back in Australia, attention was focused on other things. The mock affair known as the opposition party tried to make something of the personal ribbing given by Trump to Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd. Small minds are distracted by small matters, and instead of taking issue with the appalling cost of AUKUS with its chimerical submarines, or the voluntary relinquishment of various sectors of the Australian economy to US control, Sussan Ley of the Liberal Party was adamant that Rudd be sacked. This was occasioned by an encounter where Trump had turned to the Australian PM to ask if “an ambassador” had said anything “bad about me”. Trump’s follow up remarks: “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.” The finger was duly pointed at Rudd by Albanese. “You said bad?” inquired Trump. Rudd, never one to manage the brief response, spoke of being critical of the president in his pre-ambassadorial phase but that was all in the past. “I don’t like you either,” shot Trump in reply. “And I probably never will.”

This was enough to exercise Ley, who claimed to be “surprised that the president didn’t know who the Australian ambassador was”. This showed her thin sheet grasp of White House realities. Freedom Land’s previous presidents have struggled with names, geography and memory, the list starting with such luminaries as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Not knowing the name of an ambassador from an imperial outpost is hardly a shock.

The Australian papers and broadcasters, however, drooled and saw seismic history in the presence of casual utterance. Sky News host Sharri Markson was reliably idiotic: “The big news of course is President Trump’s meeting with Albanese today and the major news story to come out of it is Trump putting Rudd firmly in his place.” Often sensible in her assessments, the political columnist Annabel Crabb showed she had lost her mind, imbibing the Trump jungle juice and relaying it to her unfortunate readers. “From his humble early days as a child reading Hansard in the regional Sunshine State pocket of Eumundi, Kevin Rudd has been preparing for this martyrdom.”

Having been politically martyred by the Labor Party at the hands of his own deputy Julia Gillard in June 2010, who challenged him for being a mentally unstable, micromanaging misfit driving down poll ratings, this was amateurish. But a wretchedly bad story should not be meddled with. At the very least, Crabb blandly offered a smidgen of humour, suggesting that Albanese, having gone into the meeting “with the perennially open chequebook for American submarines, plus an option over our continent’s considerable rare-earths reserves” was bound to come with some human sacrifice hovering “in the ether.”

In this grand abdication of responsibility by the press and bought think tankers, little in terms of detail was discussed about the next annexation of Australian control over its own affairs by the US. It was all babble about the views of Trump and whether, in the words of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Rudd “did an extremely good job, not only in getting the meeting, but doing the work on the critical minerals deal and AUKUS”. For the experts moored in antipodean isolation, Rudd had either been bad by being disliked for past remarks on the US chief magistrate, or good in being a representative of servile facilitation. To give him his due, Wakefield was correct to note how commentators in Australia “continue to personalise the alliance” equating it to “an episode of The Apprentice.”

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Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

WHY?

AUSTRALIA
Fortescue executive rout continues as Debelle quits green unit

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Reuters | August 31, 2023 |

(Image courtesy of Fortescue Metals Group.)

Guy Debelle, the former Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor, resigned from the board of Fortescue Metals Group’s green energy unit on Friday, media reports said, continuing the run of abrupt departures by executives at the world’s fourth largest miner.


Debelle has stepped down as a non-executive director from the board of Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), the green energy arm of Fortescue Metals Group, the Australian Financial Review reported.

In an exchange filing, critical minerals firm Tivan said Debelle will be joining its board as a non-executive director, but did not mention if he would leave FFI’s board.

Fortescue did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

This is the third senior executive departure from Fortescue just this week. Shares of the miner were trading 3.7% lower in early trade at A$20.64 as at 0012 GMT.

Debelle’s exit comes days after Fortescue’s metals division’s CEO Fiona Hick announced her departure after just six months in the role, and on Thursday the division’s finance chief Christine Morris stepped down after taking on the job three months ago.

Overseen by founder Andrew Forrest as executive chairman, Fortescue has struggled to keep senior management as it sets out to transform itself into a green energy superpower with a global footprint.

The iron ore giant logged a pretax impairment of $1 billion to its flagship Iron Bridge growth project in Western Australia and reported its lowest annual profit since 2020.

“Shareholders are going to be concerned about what and why all these people are leaving, and we’re not really getting the answers,” said Damian Rooney, director of equity sales at Argonaut said.

“It’s all good to wave your arms around and talk about going green, but at the end of the day, you still need to look after your shareholders who are investing money for growth, dividends and alike,” Rooney said.

Executive chairman Andrew Forrest, who spoke to local media earlier this week, said CEO Hick stepped aside following differences of opinion over the firm’s green transition.

“What we have now is a literally galloping herd of people who want to see this company go green,” he said, according to The Australian.

“So if you want to step outside that, you’re given a choice. You’re not fired, there’s no disagreement, you’re just given a choice: step back in, or you call it,” Forrest was quoted as saying.

Hick had joined Fortescue in February, after a year-long search for a replacement for former chief executive Elizabeth Gaines.

Ian Wells, Fortescue’s former chief financial officer, left in January, and acting chief financial officer of the energy division, Felicity Gooding, stepped down last month.

“We view the uncertainty created by multiple changes at the executive levels over the past several years as credit negative,” Sean Williams, analyst at Moody’s Investors Service said in a note earlier in the week.

(By Praveen Menon; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Michael Perry)

Indonesia says Fortescue, Tsingshan to invest billions in Borneo

Reuters | August 24, 2021 | 

Borneo Island (Image credit: Needpix)

Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group and China’s Tsingshan Holding Group could invest billions of dollars to build an industrial estate for metal smelting near a planned hydropower plant on Borneo island, an Indonesian minister said.


The companies have been in talks since early this year about the project and minister of maritime affairs and investment, Luhut Pandjaitan, has said smelting of iron, nickel and copper ores at the estate could start as early as 2023.

Fortescue could invest $12 billion, while Tsingshan has the “potential” to pump in $30 billion, a slide displayed by Luhut during a presentation on Tuesday showed.

“Total investment, there will be $100 billion, including the dam, and it will be completed in 10 years,” the minister said, adding that groundbreaking was planned for October.

TSINGSHAN ALREADY HAS LARGE INVESTMENTS IN INDONESIA RANGING FROM INDUSTRIAL PARKS TO STAINLESS STEEL PROCESSING

Last September, a Fortescue subsidiary, Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), signed an agreement to conduct feasibility studies into the utilisation of Indonesia’s hydropower and geothermal resources for industrial operations, for potential domestic supply and exports, FFI’s chief executive Julie Shuttleworth said in email in March.

FFI has been announcing ambitious global green energy plans, mostly via green hydrogen. It plans to fund the majority of its projects off its balance sheet, investing about $1 billion a year of its own money.

“FFI is already conducting studies on potential projects in Kalimantan, and we look forward to continuing our positive engagement with local stakeholders,” FFI’s Shuttleworth told Reuters on Wednesday.

Tsingshan already has large investments in Indonesia ranging from industrial parks to stainless steel processing. A spokesman did not respond to a request by Reuters for comments.

Top nickel producer Indonesia has ambitious plans to start processing its rich supplies of nickel laterite ore used in lithium batteries and eventually become a global hub for producing and exporting electric vehicles (EV).

Miners and EV companies alike are keen to ensure that the supply chains of their batteries are green compliant, and are hesitant to invest in projects powered by coal, which nickel smelters usually rely on in Indonesia.

The new metal smelting estate will be located near the 11,000 megawatt Kayan hydropower project in North Kalimantan province, on Indonesia’s side of Borneo island.

(By Bernadette Christina Munthe, Melanie Burton, Tom Daly and Fathin Ungku; Editing by Ed Davies)

Fortescue best positioned to weather industry disruption – report
MINING.com Editor | August 24, 2021 |

Fortescue Metals leads an Australia-heavy Top 10 based on GlobalData research.

Fortescue Metals leads in an Australia-heavy Top 10 listing of companies based on leadership in 10 areas that matter the most to the mining sector, GlobalData reports.


The company, the fourth biggest iron ore producer globally, is the mining company best positioned to take advantage of future disruption in the industry, according to GlobalData analysts.

ON A SCALE OF ONE TO FIVE, AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES RECEIVED AN AVERAGE SCORE OF 3.7, WITH FORTESCUE LEADING THE COUNTRY’S SCORECARD WITH 4.5

The scores are based on overall technology, macroeconomic and sector-specific leadership in the ten key thematic areas developed by GlobalData.

Fortescue Metals is followed by several gold mining firms – US-based Newmont, Russia-based Polyus, South Africa’s Gold Fields, Australia’s Newcrest Mining and Canada’s Kirkland Lake Gold.

Click here to view an interactive chart comparing company ratings across the 10 themes in question.

South African Gold Fields was also highly ranked in GlobalData’s thematic scorecard, announcing new digitizing mines and renewable power operations projects.

On a scale of one to five, Australian companies received an average score of 3.7, with Fortescue leading the country’s scorecard with 4.5.

Australia also has one of the highest representations among top mining companies, being home to five out of 50 of the companies in the GlobalData analysis, only behind China and Canada. However, this number doesn’t include multinational corporations such as Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto or companies that have significant operations in Australia, such as AngloGold Ashanti.

Overall, 44% of the top companies in the GlobalData thematic scorecard are from the Asia-Pacific region, including China.


In the case of Australia, where the five companies on the list shone brightest was the workplace safety theme, scoring an average of 4.4 out of five. Commodity markets and ESG, climate change, and capital raising were also among the most promising themes for Australian companies, while investment in lithium-ion batteries was below the scorecard average.

Companies based in other countries had their own strengths and weaknesses: Chinese corporations, for example, perform well on capital raising but poorly when it comes to climate change, while British companies are more ambitious when it comes to climate change and score well on commodity markets.

For the latter, Rio Tinto, for example, has benefited from the steep rise in iron ore prices over the last 12 months, and is looking to build its position in copper. The successful development of the Jadar project in Serbia would also improve its position in lithium-ion battery theme.

These scores are based on overall technology, macroeconomic and sector-specific leadership in 10 of the key themes that matter most to the mining industry and are generated by GlobalData analysts’ assessments.

 

Fortescue secures yuan loan worth $2 billion for green energy plans 

A BIG GREEN FU TO TRUMP

Reuters | August 7, 2025 | 

Credit: Fortescue

Australia’s Fortescue said on Friday it had secured a yuan-denominated loan worth 14.2 billion Chinese yuan ($1.98 billion) to ramp up its decarbonization plans, weeks after scrapping its US and Australian green hydrogen projects.

The loan agreement comes as the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner reshapes its clean energy portfolio as the United States scales back its priorities on green energy under the Trump administration.

Fortescue announced plans in July to wind up its green hydrogen projects in Arizona, US, and Queensland in Australia, a week after its billionaire founder and chairman, Andrew Forrest, visited China with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

On Friday, Forrest, popularly known as Twiggy, lauded China’s industrial scale, innovation, and commitment to investing in green technology, while underscoring his deepening ties with Chinese institutions.

“As the United States steps back from investing in what will be the world’s greatest industry, China and Fortescue are advancing the green technology needed to lead the global green industrial revolution,” Forrest said in a statement.

This financing agreement strengthens Fortescue’s long-standing partnerships with Chinese institutions and opens new frontiers for collaboration, Forrest said.

The five-year syndicated term-loan facility with a 3.8% per annum fixed interest rate is backed by leading Chinese, Australian and international lenders, including Bank of China and ICBC.

The facility is the first of its kind for an Australian company where the use of proceeds is not restricted, a Fortescue spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response.

Fortescue plans to use the facility for general corporate purposes and its decarbonization plans, the company said.

($1 = 7.1810 Chinese yuan)

(By John Biju, Rishav Chatterjee and Sameer Manekar; Editing by Alan Barona and Subhranshu Sahu)

Rio Tinto says no economic incentive for green steel in Australia

Reuters | August 7, 2025 

Iron ore stockpile (Credit: Rio Tinto)

Rio Tinto joined peer BHP on Thursday to play down Australia’s prospects of building out a “green iron” sector that would help decarbonize the steel industry because the country lacks the economic incentives to do so.

Australia is the world’s largest supplier of seaborne iron ore and has been striving to build a role as a reliable source of green metals. In February the government allocated A$1 billion ($652.4 million) to support the manufacture of green iron and its supply chains.

Since Australia’s iron ore is mostly too low-grade to be directly processed into steel with renewable energy, it needs an additional processing step. When this is undertaken with hydrogen made from renewable energy instead of coal, the product is called hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) or “green iron”, a low-carbon base for making green steel.

“Today I don’t believe there is an economic incentive for anybody to move to a hydrogen DRI,” Rio Tinto’s chief technical officer Mark Davies said.

The technology was unproven, and there were complications moving from existing processes using natural gas to hydrogen, he told a business lunch in Melbourne.

“And doing it in Australia is expensive. It’s an expensive place to build stuff,” he said.

Major miner BHP said last month it was too costly for Australia to build a “green iron” industry, even after the country and China agreed to jointly work to decarbonize the steel supply chain, responsible for nearly a 10th of global emissions.

A global carbon price of “a couple of hundred dollars” would be needed to create that incentive, Davies later told a press briefing.

($1 = 1.5328 Australian dollars)

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Alison Williams)