This year marks the 10th anniversary of Minas-Rio’s operations, which began loading its first vessel of high-grade pellet feed in October 2014 at Açu port in Brazil. To commemorate this milestone, a delegation from Bahrain Steel – one of Anglo American’s largest customers – was invited to plant a tree during their visit to our mine in Conceição do Mato Dentro in August 2024. Their Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Dilip George, was accompanied by his Group Chief Financial Officer (Yousif Yaqoob Majid) and the Raw Materials Team.
In 2019, Anglo American Marketing Limited (AAML) signed a 20-year agreement to supply Bahrain Steel with 8 million tons of ultra high-grade Direct Reduction Pellet Feed (DRPF) annually from Minas-Rio’s mine. DRPF is used by Bahrain Steel to produce Direct Reduction pellets which is supplied to steel producers, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa region. The DR pellets are then reduced using natural gas to produce Direct Reduced Iron (DRI). From a Scope 3 perspective, this steelmaking route represents an approximate 40% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to that of a traditional Blast Furnace/Basic Oxygen Furnace route. To further enhance our sustainability efforts, we recently deployed one of our Ubuntu LNG dual-fueled vessels to Bahrain Steel. In addition to DRPF, we also supply Bahrain Steel with high-grade Minas-Rio Pellet Feed (MRPF), making us a major supplier of their pellet feed requirements. This has enabled Bahrain Steel to achieve production records from their two pelletising plants, most recently with a record of 13 million tons of pellets in 2023.
Our strategic partnership extends beyond the supply of pellet feed as we have also signed a Tolling agreement where MRPF is shipped to Bahrain Steel to be pelletised into “AA Pellets”, which are marketed by Marketing’s Iron Ore Sales team. This broadens our high-grade iron ore portfolio to steel producers globally as we’re able to supply Kumba Lump and Sinter Fines from South Africa, Minas-Rio pellet feed from Brazil, and AA Pellets from Bahrain, along with other third-party iron ore sourced by our Sourcing and Origination team. There is also ongoing technical collaboration between our Technical Marketing team and their production team to develop new pellet products. Anglo American’s commitment to digitalisation and operational efficiency was also showcased in the recent implementation of the first electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) transaction for a shipment to Bahrain Steel. Compared to traditional paper-based Bills of Lading which can take up to weeks to process, an eBL can be completed in a few hours in a safe and secure manner.
Together with Bahrain Steel, we are not only delivering high-grade iron ore solutions but also advancing the future of sustainable steel production on a global scale.