Mining giant Rio Tinto has announced plans to develop Pongamia seed farms in Australia as part of a new biofuels pilot.
The pilot aims to determine if Pongamia seed oil can contribute to Rio Tinto’s renewable diesel needs for its expansive mining operations in Australia.
Pongamia is a legume tree native to Australia that produces oil-rich seeds that can be harvested annually and processed into renewable diesel.
The company is in the final stages of acquiring approximately 3,000 hectares of cleared land in north Queensland to establish farms to study growth conditions and measure seed oil yields.
Rio Tinto has partnered with woodfibre processor and exporter Midway to oversee the planting and management of the Pongamia seed farms.
The mining company stated that it sees biofuels as an avenue to reduce reliance on fossil diesel as fleet electrification technologies mature. It is using the pilot to investigate how biofuels could be used in scenarios where electrification may face practical limitations, such as in blasting and non-haul equipment.
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By GlobalData
Rio Tinto chief decarbonisation officer Jonathon McCarthy said: “Diesel accounts for around 10% of our emissions footprint in Australia. While we continue to pursue electrification as the long-term solution for displacing the majority of our diesel use, the Pongamia seed pilot is an important parallel pathway that could reduce our reliance on diesel in the mid-term.”
McCarthy added that Australia does not yet have a biofuel feedstock industry sufficient to meet domestic demand, with the pilot aiming to fill this gap.
This follows a smaller-scale trial at Rio Tinto Gove operations in the Northern Territory where Pongamia saplings were planted to test their response to low soil quality, heat and other climatic conditions in northern Australia.
In 2023, Rio Tinto’s Boron, California, operations became the first open-pit mine in the world to complete the full transition of its heavy machinery to renewable diesel. The company’s Kennecott copper operation in Utah will also replace its fossil diesel consumption with renewable diesel in 2024.
Respondents to a recent Mining Technology poll identified renewable diesel as a key solution to reduce emissions in the industry, particularly for surface trucks.
