South Korea’s POSCO has signed a collaboration agreement with Australian miner BHP to validate its proprietary hydrogenbased steelmaking technology, advancing its efforts to decarbonize steel production, POSCO said Sept. 3.

BHP’s iron ore will be used to test the performance of HyREX technology under diverse raw material conditions, with the companies aiming to identify optimal feedstock parameters for commercial-scale deployment, POSCO said in a statement.

“This partnership is highly significant in that a steelmaker and a global raw materials supplier are jointly preparing for the future of low-carbon steelmaking,” Um Kyung-keun, head of POSCO’s Technical Research Institute, said.

“Starting with BHP, we will accelerate the development of low carbon steelmaking technology by expanding cooperation with global raw material suppliers,” Kyung-keun said.

During the trials, POSCO said it will assess how iron ore’s characteristics affect the production process, while BHP will verify the suitability of its iron ore.

HyREX replaces coal with hydrogen as the reducing agent in iron production, helping to reduce CO2 emissions, according to POSCO’s website.

The agreement builds on a memorandum of understanding signed in October 2025 and expands the partnership from resource trade to research and development.

The deal follows POSCO’s technology partnership with engineering firm Primetals in 2024 and signals that the steelmaker is building a global supply chain framework around HyREX, according to the statement.