The CEO of Fortescue says that the switch to renewables – which the iron ore giant is seeking to lead by reaching “real zero” in just four years – has been made much easier by the impact of President Donald Trump’s ill-advised war on Iran.
Fortescue has long argued that the switch to wind, solar, battery storage and electric trucks and other mining equipment has been an economic necessity as well as an environmental one.
But it says that economics have been given a huge lift by the surge in fossil fuel prices in recent months, and the lingering uncertainty about the state of the market.
“It cost me 400 bucks to fill up my dual cab (ute) the other day with diesel, and then two weeks later, cost me 200 bucks,” Fortescue CEO Dino Otranto said at the Pilbara Summit in Karratha this week.
“Already I’m starting to think, well, that was just an anomaly. I’m not going to change my ways, right? But if you look back the last 20 or 30 years, you can now start counting those anomalies, you can measure them as a frequency.
