The growing demand for decarbonisation and the declining iron ore quality present significant challenges for the global ironmaking and steelmaking industry. The Australian iron ore industry, as the leading iron ore producer, needs to understand the implications of high gangue on the green steelmaking routes. Green ironmaking pathways often involve the use of direct reduced iron (DRI). To prevent gangue materials from going to the downstream steelmaking (electric arc furnace (EAF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF)), an intermediate smelting stage consisting of an electric smelting furnace (ESF) is currently under investigation. Researchers from Swinburne University and the Australian National University have been looking into the effect of gangue-rich Australian iron ore on the overall process design, ore beneficiation, with a particular focus on the downstream steelmaking option: EAF and ESF integrating a basic oxygen furnace (ESF-BOF). This paper outlines the influence of gangue materials in DRI, ESF, EAF, and BOF processes. The EAF model showed that with 100 wt per cent cold DRI, the specific electric energy requirement (SEC) ranged from 514 to 651 kWh/tls (tonne of liquid steel), yield decreased from 88.0 wt per cent to 75.5 wt per cent as gangue increased from 7.1 wt per cent to 15.8 wt per cent, and slag weight increased from about 200 to 630 kg/tls. On the other hand, high gangue increased the energy demand of the DRI reactor and SEC of the ESF. Every 1.0 wt per cent increase in gangue led to an increase in the slag production by 23 kg in the ESF. The ESF slag is expected to be used in cement production. The amount of required flux and slag produced did not change much in the BOF with changing gangue. The results indicated that ESF-BOF is more compatible to process lower grade ores than EAF, where the quantity of slag and loss of yield are very high with increasing gangue content.