Rio Tinto conducts first renewable diesel trial across Pilbara iron ore operations

Renewable diesel has helped fuel Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore operations for the first time, with the completion of a successful trial of biofuel across its network of Western Australian ports, railways and mines.

Neste allocated 10 million litres of renewable diesel from used cooking oil for the trial. The fuel was shipped from Singapore to Rio Tinto’s Parker Point fuel terminal in Dampier by Viva Energy and blended portside with fossil diesel to create a mix with about 20% renewable diesel. It was then distributed across Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore operations for use in rail, marine, blasting, haul trucks, surface mining equipment and light vehicles.

The four-week trial in January and February 2025 provided an understanding of how renewable diesel use could be scaled up across Rio Tinto’s Australian operations in the future, giving key insights into the bulk renewable diesel supply chain, importation and blending processes. It also reduced Rio Tinto’s Scope 1 emissions by about 27,000 tonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions, which is as much as the tailpipe emissions from 6,300 cars for a year.

Rio Tinto is actively exploring the potential of biofuels as part of its ongoing efforts to achieve its Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction targets of 50% by 2030 and net zero by 2050. This trial builds on the successful transition at the company’s Boron and Kennecott operations in the US, where 11% of its total global fossil diesel consumption has been replaced with renewable diesel.

Rio Tinto is also developing a Pongamia seed farm in North Queensland as part of a biofuels pilot to contribute to the growth of the Australian biofuels industry.