Miners are considering new ways to make the dirt they dig up green. Across the U.S. border in Quebec, a research facility will fine-tune a technology that its owners—Alcoa Corp. and Rio Tinto PLC—believe could turn aluminum smelters carbon-free for the first time. Another initiative under way in Sweden could see hydrogen replace coking coal in manufacturing steel. Miners...
Mining firms such as Alcoa and Rio Tinto are attempting to develop more environmentally friendly ways of producing aluminium as a result of pressure from suppliers , including Apple and Audi , as well as a desire to maintain demand for metals that generate most of their profit . Manufacturing aluminium , aluminium and steel accounts for a combined 30 % of direct industrial CO2 emissions . The joint Alcoa - aluminium Tinto Elysis project aims to create the first carbon - free aluminium smelters , while Sweden ’s Hybrit technology aims to replace coaking coal with hydrogen during steel manufacture .