Whyalla provides the litmus test for the commonwealth and the South Australian government’s commitment to green iron. It has all the right ingredients for a thriving, globally competitive green iron industry. In addition to low-cost energy, there is plentiful magnetite ore – ideal for making green iron.

Combine these inputs with the available port and the existing skilled workforce, and you have perhaps the best location for making low-cost green iron in the world.

The administration process for the Whyalla steelworks’ assets could be a defining choice about the future of Australia’s industrial production capability in a changing world. The opportunity to secure lasting prosperity, leveraging the natural advantages of the region, looms large. And that advantage is based in green production, not gas.

While the administrator of the Whyalla steelworks has given Bluescope a right of last refusal in the tender to run the facility – which in commercial terms is usually a licence to operate – this does not mean the amazing opportunity for Whyalla to be a green production facility is........

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