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Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) Chair sets his sights on green hydrogen

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ASX:FMG      MCAP $81.03B
22 January 2021 10:30 (AEST)
Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) - Chairman, Andrew Forrest

Source: ABC

Chairman and Founder of Fortescue Metals (FMG), Dr Andrew Forrest, has recorded the first ABC Boyer Lecture for 2021.

Fortescue Metals Group, founded in 2003, is a global leader in the iron ore industry, having discovered and developed major iron ore deposits and constructed some of the most significant mines in the world, with world-class infrastructure and mining assets in the Pilbara, Western Australia.

The lecture, recorded to a live audience on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is entitled “Oil vs Water: Confessions of a Carbon Emitter” and will be broadcast on television Saturday, January 23 at 2:30 pm AEDT.

The former CEO and current Chairman of Fortescue spent much of 2020 travelling the world in search of renewable energy projects for the company, which assisted in his pursuit to fight climate change.

The chairman says it’s the right time for Australia to develop its own big steel making industry using the nation’s vast iron ore resources and emerging green, zero-emissions technologies.

He says if Australia were to capture just 10 per cent of the world’s steel market, more than 40,000 jobs would be generated, more than what’s required to replace every job in the coal industry.

Australia’s richest man mentioned his own company generates just over two million tonnes of greenhouse gas every day — equating to more than the entire emissions of Bhutan, or 0.004 per cent of the greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere every year.

To combat this, he says the company will start building Australia’s first “green steel” pilot plant this year and a commercial-scale plant within the next few years.

The speech also includes a reference to Fortescue’s net profit after tax of over US$940 million (roughly A$1210 million) for December 2020, which is based on preliminary unaudited management accounts.

Fortescue is scheduled to lodge its half-year financial results for FY21 on February 18, 2021.

Fortescue advises that the preliminary net profit after tax for the six months ended December 31, 2020, on an unaudited basis is in the range of US$4 billion to US$4.1 billion (around A$5.15 billion to A$5.28 billion).


Fortescue Metals is down 0.64 per cent, trading at $24.71 at 11:30 am AEDT.

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