A special ceremony to celebrate the opening of the world"s first commercial HIsmelt® plant, which is operated by Rio Tinto, was held in Kwinana, Western Australia last week.

HIsmelt is a revolutionary direct smelting technology which smelts iron ore fines and non coking coal to produce a premium grade iron product. It is a more environmentally friendly process replacing traditional ironmaking and removing the need for coke ovens and sinter plants. It is also a new source of low cost iron feed stock for electric arc furnaces.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive, Sam Walsh said, "The event recognised theachievement of 25 years of research, development and application on Australia's largest existing research and development project.

"Some A$1 billion has been invested to bring this technology and facility to fruition and we are very proud to deliver a process which has the potential to revolutionise world ironmaking, delivering a low cost, more environmentally friendly, high quality pig iron product.

The Australian government provided a grant of A$125 million for the development of multi-user infrastructure associated with the plant. The Western Australian Government provided assistance in securing the land at Kwinana for the plant.

The Kwinana HIsmelt plant is owned by Rio Tinto (60%), Nucor Corporation (25%), Mitsubishi Corporation (10%) and Shougang Corporation (5%). Rio Tinto operates the Kwinana facility on behalf of the joint venture.

Construction of the HIsmelt plant started in January 2003 and was completed in April 2005. The plant will produce 800,000 tonnes per annum of pig iron.

The plant moved from the hot commissioning phase in October 2005 and is being ramped up to full capacity over three years. The first shipment of around 40,000 tonnes of pig iron left Kwinana for the United States in June.

About HIsmelt

- The HIsmelt® process was developed over 25 years by Rio Tinto. It is Australia's largest private research and development projects. Rio Tinto and other participants have spent more than Aus$1 billion on this development.

- The first commercial facility now operating in Kwinana, Western Australia was built at a cost of more than Aus$400 million by Rio Tinto and its commercial partners Nucor, Mitsubishi Corporation and Shougang. Construction of the HIsmelt® plant took two years and at its peak around 900 people were engaged on site.

- The HIsmelt® process uses iron ore from Western Australia and low volatile coal from Queensland. These materials are injected as fines into the molten bath of the smelt reduction vessel where they are directly smelted to molten iron.

- The technology provides many advantages to the iron and steel maker - lower capital and operating costs, greater operating flexibility, lower environmental impact and a high quality iron product.

- Iron ore used in the HIsmelt process is supplied from Rio Tinto Iron Ore's mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.