Orica and H2U Group announced a strategic partnership agreement to initiate the first phase of the proposed H2-Hub™ Gladstone project in Queensland. 

Outokumpu has signed a 10-year power supply agreement for renewable wind power with Swiss electricity producer Alpiq. The amount of contracted wind power energy corresponds to over 60% of Outokumpu’s electricity consumption at its production sites in Germany. According to the agreement, deliveries will begin in January 2023.

Increasing the share of low-carbon electricity is one of the most important methods for Outokumpu to achieve its ambitious climate targets. In total, the share of low-carbon electricity in Outokumpu's European operations is already over 80 percent.

“With another new wind power agreement, we can strengthen the role of renewable energy in the sustainable development of our operations even further. With our direction towards low-carbon energy sources, Outokumpu is supporting in the transition to more sustainable energy sources such as wind power,” says Mika Orpana, Head of Energy and Utilities, General Procurement at Outokumpu.

Earlier, Outokumpu has announced two other 10-year wind power agreements. Together these agreements support Outokumpu’s ambitious science-based climate targets which are aligned with keeping global warming below 1.5°C. The updated targets were announced in December 2021 and support Outokumpu’s aim of being the industry leader in sustainability.

Source: Outokumpu

Metso Outotec has been awarded a contract for the delivery of key technology to the Boliden Odda zinc smelter expansion in western Norway.

ENGIE and BASF have signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for renewable energy in Europe. Under the PPA, effective as of January 1, 2022, ENGIE will provide BASF with up to 20.7 terawatt hours of renewable electricity in total throughout the term of the agreement.

The latest exploration data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is out, and it’s great news for Queensland. Exploration expenditure in the Sunshine State for the September 2021 quarter has risen by 7 percent on the previous quarter to reach $196 million.

ABB recently launched ABB Ability™ eMine, a portfolio of solutions that will help accelerate the move towards a zero-carbon mine. ABB also unveiled the piloting of the groundbreaking ABB Ability™ eMine FastCharge, the world’s fastest and most powerful charging system, designed to interface with all makes of electric mining haul trucks. 

Outokumpu and Gasum have signed a new 10-year power supply agreement for renewable wind power. The contracted wind power energy covers almost entirely the electricity consumption of Outokumpu's Kemi mine. According to the agreement, deliveries will begin in the summer of 2023.

DMT GROUP, a global engineering and consultancy group, is playing a central role in efforts to explore Geothermal energy potential across north-west Europe. DMT is providing expertise in seismic measurement, boreholes and data evaluation to further the ambitions of the European Green Deal.

DMT is committed to working with partners across Europe to harness the region’s untapped renewable energy source and foster the expansion of deep geothermal energy as an environmentally friendly resource. DMT’s work is currently supporting the “Geothermal Paper Drying” research project and the “Deep Geothermal Energy Rollout in North West Europe” (DGE-ROLLOUT).

Zinnwald Lithium plc, the German focused lithium development company, announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire the 50 per cent. of Deutsche Lithium GmbH ("Deutsche Lithium") that it does not already own for a total consideration of €8.8 million to be settled with a cash payment of €1.5 million and the issue of approximately 50 million new ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("New Ordinary Shares") (the "Acquisition"). Deutsche Lithium is developing the advanced Zinnwald Lithium Project in Germany ("Zinnwald" or the "Project"). The Acquisition gives the Company full ownership and operational control of the Project and is in line with its corporate objective to become a key supplier to the European lithium market.

Hitachi Construction Machinery and ABB to explore opportunities for mine operators to target net-zero emissions from mining machinery

ABB has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hitachi Construction Machinery to share their expertise and collaborate in bringing solutions to market that will reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with heavy machinery in mining.

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall are now taking a new, decisive leap forward in their work to make fossil-free steel for the global market. Industrialization of the technology being developed through HYBRIT will start in Gällivare, northern Sweden, where the world’s first production plant for fossil-free sponge iron – from feedstock to steel – is being planned.

Keliber has chosen Sweco as the EPCM consultant for the lithium project in Central Ostrobothnia, Finland. Sweco will be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) of the project.

Shell Overseas Investments BV (Shell) has agreed to acquire 100% of virtual power plant (VPP) operator Next Kraftwerke from its consortium of shareholders. The deal is expected to complete during the second quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval.

The Land and Environment Court has decided to grant SSAB Oxelösund an environmental permit to convert its steelmaking operations and reduce carbon dioxide activities by 2025. This also means that we will take a step nearer towards fossil-free steel production across SSAB in 2045.

RWE wants to acquire the European onshore wind and solar development platform from Nordex SE with a total pipeline of 2.7 Gigawatt (GW) in France, Spain, Sweden and Poland. The developer has a strong focus in France, with an overall pipeline of 1.9 GW in various project phases. 15% of the whole pipeline is close to final investment decisions (FID) or in advanced development stages; 230 megawatt have secured Contracts for Difference (CfDs) or similar feed-in tariffs. The purchase price will be around €400 million.

This year the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2020 was earned by the Icelandic Carbfix project and German company Eavor on equal merit.

The Carbfix process captures CO₂ and other sour gases from emission sources, transforming them into rocks underground in less than two years. This overturns the common view that mineral storage in Carbon Capture & Storage projects takes hundreds to thousands of years. Carbfix has global scaling potential in and beyond the geothermal industry for decarbonising the economy.

Eavor’s innovation is a novel and scalable closed-loop geothermal system of several deep horizontal wells connected to vertical wells. This overcomes the limitation of deep geothermal systems, which normally rely on vertical single wells only. By running on thermosiphon, it also enables the geothermal industry to offer both a baseload and dispatchable energy source.

The drilling technology and geothermal energy group Daldrup & Söhne has received an order from Aardwarmte Combinatie Luttelgeest B.V., Luttelgeest (ACL) for three geothermal boreholes with drilling lengths of up to 2,440 meters, as well as the construction of a heating plant and a heat network. The current order backlog of the Daldrup Group thus amounts to approx. 51 million Euros.

Business Finland has granted maximum of € 2.6 million for the development of the Keliber (“company”) lithium project. Full redemption of the grant requires the company to implement a comprehensive development plan and to meet the financial conditions.The development and innovation work focus on to contribute that the company's process is sustainable and the end product reaches the quality standards set by the customers. The project covers the period 3 June, 2019 – 31 August, 2022.