Future of Fortescue hydrogen project in serious doubt as 90 let go from Perth and Queensland

The future of one of Fortescue’s leading green energy projects looks uncertain as the business lays off staff working on its Gladstone electrolyser facility in Queensland and its hydrogen division in Perth.

About 90 Fortescue employees in all have been offered redeployment or redundancy, with about 30 of them informed while working at the company’s electrolyser factory in central Queensland this morning.

Gladstone opened in 2024 as one of Fortescue’s most advanced energy-related projects and had been expected to advance to producing green hydrogen this year. It’s understood contractors have also been demobilised from the site.

The staff exodus at Gladstone throws huge uncertainty about what comes next for that project and other projects currently in limbo within the Andrew Forrest-founded business.

It had been billed as Australia’s first fully automated factory making electrolysers used in the green hydrogen production process by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. It’s understood any existing customer orders will be fulfilled while the business mulls the future of the site.

The division has been led by CEO Mark Hutchinson since 2022 and is undergoing a review on expected timelines for a raft of ventures across the globe, including a liquid green hydrogen project in Arizona.

A Fortescue spokeswoman indicated the mining and energy business was refining its focus to establish “a green iron industry in Australia, with green hydrogen playing a critical part in making it a reality.”

“To ensure we can produce the large amounts of green hydrogen we need to make green iron, we are refocusing our efforts into the research and development of new technologies that will deliver green molecules at scale, efficiently and cost-effectively,” she said.

“Fortescue has rapidly advanced its electrolyser technology capabilities. The science has now evolved, and we are moving with it.”

The company is in the throes of building a hydrogen-powered plant at its Christmas Creek energy hub in the Pilbara capable of converting iron ore into a “near zero emissions” precursor metal for steelmaking.

That project, which would produce an initial 1500 tonnes of green metal a year, is due for completion later in 2025.

Fortescue is further angling to bring down the cost of producing hydrogen to support its ambitions to produce green iron after calling out energy costs as a major barrier to commercial success.

Energy lead Mark Hutchinson in an update last year said that major hydrogen projects were “not viable” while electricity costs remained outside the $US30 ($45.70) range.

The group was last year forced to walk back on ambitions to be producing millions of tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.

Despite the setbacks founder Andrew Forrest has been more active than ever advocating for more support for the industry on the global stage.