At BHP Mitubishi Alliance (BMA) we are a world class producer of high-quality metallurgical coal (met coal), which is an essential ingredient in the production of steel through the dominant steelmaking route, the blast furnace.
Practice Lead Product Development, Marketing Coal Carmel Jacobsen said BMA produces primarily premium hard coking coal, which our customers use exclusively in the steelmaking industry.
“Met coal is a very different type of coal to thermal coal. Thermal coal is primarily burnt for electricity generation and does not possess unique properties required for steel making,” she said.
“Steel is one of the most widely used building materials on earth, used in construction, transport, household appliances, renewables manufacture, mining plant and equipment.”
Carmel says there’s currently no material that can completely replace all the roles that this special coal has in the making of steel.
Coking coal has more carbon, reactive metallurgical properties, lower ash and less contaminants compared to thermal coal. These special properties allow coking coals to melt and swell upon heating, and then contract and fuse forming a really strong porous structure like a pumice stone.
In the blast furnace, not only does the coke provide the energy reducing gas to chemically convert the raw iron ore into almost pure iron, but its strong structure is also really critical in the high temperature regions of the furnace, where it’s the only solid structure present to support the weight of all the material above it.
Carmel says the traditional blast furnace iron making process that depends on coke made from met coal is unlikely to be replaced at scale by emergent technologies for decades.
“Demand for steel is expected to remain robust until at least 2050, driven by industrialisation of developing countries and green infrastructure development in the developed world.”
In particular India, the largest seaborne coking coal importer with a young blast furnace fleet and robust steel outlook will remain a key growth market for BMA. Our current 24-40 years of reserve life across our premium quality mines is well aligned to meet this demand.
BMA’s coking coals are some of the highest quality coking coals in the world typically attracting up to 10 to 30 per cent premium over lower quality coals. Their relative advantage will increase in the future as mills seek to be more efficient and operate with a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity, while most committed new metallurgical coal supply is expected to be mid quality or lower.
Carmel mentioned that BMA has several competitive advantages amongst its competitors, including product quality, a more reliable supply chain and physical proximity to key growth markets – with 30 to 40 per cent shorter sailing distance relative to the next largest competitor.
“Last but not least, our coals GHG emission intensity ranks in the first half of the seaborne met coal operations, which is becoming increasingly important to our customers.”
Did you know...
Coal is formed from prehistoric vegetation that has been heated and compressed over millions of years.
The energy we get from coal today comes from the sunlight that was absorbed by plants that were alive millions of years ago.
BMA operates in the Bowen Basin. The location of the coal we extract determines the grade and quality of the coal.
Metallurgical coal was first used to make steel in China in the 11th Century.
An offshore wind turbine requires three times more steel per megawatt installed capacity than a conventional power plant.
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