ERG has indicated that once hydrogen becomes commercially viable, the plant can be transitioned to hydrogen-based production with minimal disruption.

Under an agreement with Primetals Technologies and Midrex Technologies, the Luxembourg-based metals and mining firm plans to produce two million tonnes of HBI per year in Rudny, Kostanay region.

With commissioning scheduled for 2029, the partners have said the Midrex Flex plant will be “one of the largest” next-generation metallurgy facilities in Central Asia, and the first HBI plant in Kazakhstan.

The switch to hydrogen is enabled by the use of Midrex Flex technology, which initially uses natural gas instead of coal and is designed to switch to hydrogen without major retrofitting.

The direct reduced iron (DRI) technology uses natural gas to remove oxygen from iron ore, rather than coal, like in blast furnaces. ERG said this cuts CO2 emissions by 50%.

The resulting HBI is a compact form of DRI which can be used in steelmaking. It will have a metallisation rate of 93.5% and an iron content of approximately 90%.

The recent contract marks a significant step toward modernising Kazakhstan’s economy and expanding its potential, according to ERG CEO and Chairman Shukhrat Ibragimov.

Primetals and Midrex have partnered in the past to build a 100% hydrogen-based DRI plant for Blastr Green Steel in Finland. The 2.5 million tonne plant highlights the growing momentum around using hydrogen in traditional, hard-to-abate sectors like steelmaking.