Australia’s federal government granted environmental approval on October 7, 2026, for Stage 1 of the Port Hedland Iron Project. The Western Australian hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant is backed by South Korea’s POSCO, Japan’s Marubeni and Taiwan’s China Steel Corporation.
The approval was issued to project developer Port Hedland Iron Pty Ltd under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and remains valid until June 30, 2088. Construction must begin by October 7, 2031. Western Australia granted state-level approval for the project, valued at about 3 billion, in April 2026.
The complex will be built in the Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area, about 10 km southwest of Port Hedland. It will include iron ore processing, a pellet plant and a facility producing up to 2 million mt of HBI annually. The project will use about 3–3.5 million mt of ore a year, with around 700,000 mt of pellets planned for export through the port.
The plant will use MIDREX direct reduction technology, replacing coal with natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with blast-furnace ironmaking. The project also includes hydrogen production and storage. Construction is expected to take about 2.5 years, and the facility’s estimated operational life is up to 101 years.
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