Fortescue Future Industries has built a pilot plant that can turn iron ore into green iron without hydrogen – or coal – as part of its quest to slash carbon emissions from steel production.

The FFI research team achieved the breakthrough in less than a year since it set up laboratories and an office in the backstreets of Balcatta in Perth. This is where the project, talked up by Andrew Forrest when Fortescue Metals Group and stable mate FFI handed down half-year results, is taking shape in semi-secrecy.