"In the past few years, China has invested heavily in environmental protection. We deeply feel this. Many factories are promoting upgrading and transformation, and some pollutant indicators are also falling, including dust, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions." Soon, in the beginning of the 2019 environmental protection "caravan" project, Lee Kirk, president of Cargill Metals Division, said.

Li Ke believes that environmental protection is a long-term process and will not happen overnight. However, in recent years, China's determination and investment in environmental protection at the government level and industry level have been very large, and it has also produced many positive results in environmental protection. Nowadays, steel companies generally pay more attention to environmental protection and are committed to reducing pollutant emissions, so they are also more inclined to produce high-end, high value-added products.

Currently, iron and steel enterprises need higher purity and less impurities in the selection of metallurgical raw materials. "This is also the direction of Cargill's efforts. We have invested in an iron ore project in Canada, which mainly produces high-grade iron ore with few impurities. This project was put into production in the second half of this year and began to ship to China. We believe The commissioning of this project can effectively help Chinese steel companies to achieve high-quality production and further help companies reduce their environmental impact. "Li Ke said.

It is understood that the project is located in the Tacora Scully Mine in eastern Canada and is currently jointly held by the Scully Mine Operations Department, Cargill and Proterra. In 2018, Cargill invested USD 335 million to re-operate the mine. The main product is sintered fine powder, with an initial annual production capacity of 6.5 million tons. If the market conditions are good, the production capacity can reach 12 million tons per year. As one of the shareholders, Cargill focuses on product market development and is responsible for the underwriting of all products within 15 years.

The Tacora mine has a large iron ore resource reserve, with proven and inferred reserves of 440 million tons, converted to a final product of 150 million tons, which can be mined for 26 years, and geological exploration is ongoing. The original ore grade of the product is about 35%, and the final fine powder grade is about 66%. The silicon content of the product is low, and the silicon content of the final product is about 2.5% to 2.6%; the manganese content of the raw ore is 2.5%, and the manganese content of the final product is controlled to about 1.4% after the demanganization process.

AcTacora improved the production process and invested in additional manganese removal processes. On the premise of ensuring product quality, it not only expanded the scope of resource use, but also improved product quality, and achieved efficient, stable, low-cost and sustainable production. Through the demanganization process, the mined high-manganese ore (manganese content is about 2.5%) can also be included in production, expanding the scope of resource use. In addition, the location of the mine is very close to the production workshop, and the transportation distance is very short. All the advantages can help Tacora fine powder achieve low-cost operation.

Mr. Li Ke said that the product mined at the mine had been shipped in August this year, and three shipments had been sent to China. The preliminary product research and test work of the mine was carried out in cooperation with Central South University of China and Hualing Xianggang.

It is reported that in terms of the black industry, Cargill's metal business covers a wide range, not only the international steel trade business, iron ore business, but also active in the derivatives market. "All Cargill businesses are focused on providing customers with solutions and value. Now the market is very volatile and the risks are increasing. Many downstream steel mills want to focus on making production better, reducing costs and quality. In summary, as much as possible to reduce the impact of price fluctuations. Cargill can help customers reduce the risk of price fluctuations through spot and derivative instruments, so that they can better focus on production. "Li Ke said.