The Government of Canada awarded C$18.1 million (US$13.4 million) from its Low Carbon Economy Fund to Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) to support the decarbonization of iron ore processing at its operations in Labrador West.

The funding will enable IOC to reduce the amount of heavy fuel oil that is consumed in the production of iron ore pellets and concentrate. The company will install an electric boiler to displace emissions from the usage of the heavy fuel oil boilers, as well as instrumentation and fuel-efficient burners to reduce heavy fuel oil consumption further from induration machines.

Over the lifetime of this project, IOC will see a cumulative reduction of about 2.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Installation of the new equipment will begin in the second quarter of 2024 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. The project will create more than 100 jobs during the construction and implementation stages in Labrador West.

The Government of Canada’s contribution represents approximately 25% of the total cost of the project, with IOC funding the remainder of the investment.

IOC is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (58.7%), Mitsubishi (26.2%) and the Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corporation (15.1%). IOC operations are integrated across a mine and processing plant in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador; a port and stockpile in Sept-Iles, Quebec; and a 418 kilometer railway that joins these 2 parts of the operation.