Two of the properties are located in Perth,another is in Melbourne.
Fortescue alleges that confidential information was copied and taken when Masterman and Kolodziejczyk left the company in late 2021.
Soon after leaving the miner,Kolodziejczyk,Fortescue’s former chief scientist,and Masterman,a senior executive close to Forrest,founded Element Zero with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of Australia’s most lucrative export industry,iron ore.
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Fortescue has positioned itself as a green energy convert,promising to spend $9.2 billion to eliminate emissions from its mining operations and become a global producer of green hydrogen and iron.
“The allegation at the heart of the proceedings is an alleged ‘industrial-scale misuse’ of what is said to be,by the Fortescue parties,confidential information concerning its ‘green[carbon dioxide free] iron’ technology,” Federal Court judge John Logan said in a summary of the claim.
“It is alleged that this has been utilised in the designing,engineering and construction and operation by the first respondent[Element Zero] of an industrial pilot plant for an electrochemical reduction process.”