Greeshma Gadikota

Assistant Professor and Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Greeshma Gadikota, Cornell University professor and director of the Sustainable Energy and Resource Recovery Group in the College of Engineering, says the tariffs could unlock new ways of using the domestic supply of low-grade iron ore, curtailing emissions from overseas transport.

Gadikota says:

“The U.S. does not have much high-grade ore left and the current facilities are built for high-grade iron ore. Given that we have mostly low-grade ore, we will need to come up with new ways of pre–concentrating the ore. The push towards domestic manufacturing may unlock new opportunities and innovations to harness the vast quantities of low-grade iron ore in the U.S., as opposed to importing the finished product.

“Unlocking this innovation domestically eliminates the life cycle emissions from transporting ores across the ocean. From an emissions perspective, the innovation is worth developing if life cycle emissions from the additional process of concentrating the ore can offset the emissions from overseas transportation.

“Natural low-grade ores have more silica in them than what is optimal. Having spoken with owners of low-grade iron ore mines, I know there is interest in extracting silica during the processing of the low grade iron ore and supplying the silica to glass manufacturers and others, and using the extracted high grade (or concentrated) iron ore in steel making. The additional step of concentrating iron ore will have environmental impacts, but the co-recovery of multiple products such as silica —in addition to concentrated iron ore — makes this approach worth exploring. 

“The cost of pre-concentrating may be higher, but the co-production of silica in addition to iron ore may unlock more revenues.”