China Baowu and Rio Tinto have completed the Pelbara mixed iron ore balling and direct reduction tests.

On June 12, Rio Tinto Group announced that China Baowu and Rio Tinto have used Rio Tinto's Pilbara blended iron ore to complete pelletizing and shaft furnace industrial trials. This is part of their broader cooperation aimed at researching ways to reduce emissions in steel production. The trial was carried out at China Baowu's Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron and Steel Base, using hydrogen-based shaft furnace technology to produce direct reduced iron (DRI), with one-third of the pellet ore containing Pilbara blended ore. The resulting DRI was then sent to an industrial-scale converter for steelmaking production; the DRI also underwent small-scale electric furnace testing.