Companies controlled by billionaire Alisher Usmanov will build a plant in central Russia to supply greener products used to make steel amid a growing focus to clean up the industry.

A joint venture between USM and its Metalloinvest Holding Co.'s iron ore mine will invest 40 billion rubles ($540 million) to build a facility to make 2 million tons of hot-briquetted iron, or HBI, a year, the companies said last Sunday. The plant, in Russia's Kursk region, will begin operations in 2024.

The joint venture signed an accord with Primetals Technologies and Midrex Technologies, a supplier of direct reduction iron-making technology, to work on the project. USM will hold 55% of the venture with the rest held by Metalloinvest's mine, which will supply iron ore pellets to the new HBI plant, planned to be one of the world's largest.

Metalloinvest itself already produces almost 8 million tons of HBI or DRI annually.