The Hamersley Basin mining location lies in the Pilbara region of north-west Western Australia, 1,100km north of Perth. By means of its wholly owned subsidiary, Hamersley Iron Pty, Rio Tinto operates five major creating mines in this area: Mount Tom Cost, Marandoo, Brockman, Paraburdoo and Yandicoogina, though the business is in a 60/40% joint venture using the Chinese corporation, CMIEC, at the Channar mine and with Henan Baosteel at Eastern Ranges. The Yandicoogina mine came on stream in 1999.

Production for the duration of 2006 totalled 97.2Mt of iron ore , of which 79.2Mt was sourced from Paraburdoo, Mount Tom Price, Marandoo, Brockman and Yandicoogina, 8.2Mt came from the Eastern Range operation, and 9.8Mt came from the Channar joint venture.

Total shipments from the company’s ports were 98.1Mt, an all-time record, driven largely by additional increases in demand for iron ore from China. Rio Tinto also has a 53% holding inside the Robe River iron ore properties (Pannawonica and West Angelas), also in the Pilbara, which created a further 52.9Mt of ore during 2006.

In early 2008 Rio Tinto additional strengthened its top position in the region using the discovery of a major, new resource at Caliwingina (875Mt at 56.9% Fe).

The Caliwingina resource is within the Mt Pyrton Project region which lies 100km northwest of Tom Price. It can be situated within the Late Archaean to Early Proterozoic (two,765–2,470Ma) Hamersley Basin.

Geology and reserves

The Hamersley iron resources, contained in banded iron formations of precambrian age, cover extensive areas with the Pilbara region. Haematite would be the principal iron mineral.

In the very first quarter of 2010 confirmed and probable reserves at Hamersley’s Pilbara operations yielded 3,344Mt of saleable ore. The Robe River operations had a additional 696Mt of confirmed and probable ore, grading between 57.2% and 62.2% iron. Rio Tinto also has substantial undeveloped resources in the Pilbara, too as a 50% interest within the Hope Downs joint venture that was completed in 2008.

Mining

All of Hamersley Iron’s mines are standard open pits. Material is drilled and blasted in benches, blast holes becoming charged with an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) mixture and heavy ANFO dispensed by bulk explosive trucks. Ore is loaded into haul trucks by shovels, hydraulic excavators or front-end-loaders, and transported towards the primary crusher. It really is then processed in a crushing and screening plant to generate fine ore and lump ore.

At Marandoo, 4 pits are operational and others are going to be brought into operation inside the future.

The low bench height (10m), compared with Mount Tom Cost (15m) and Paraburdoo (14m), facilitates selective mining and minimises dilution, but equipment is smaller than at Hamersley’s other operations.

Brockman enhances the stability and flexibility of Hamersley operations and raises the proportion of lump in Hamersley’s item mix. It’s a contractor operation with management and grade control coming under Hamersley’s direction. The deposit consists of detrital and conglomerate haematite.

At Channar, crusher feed comes from Channar Primary Pit and Channar East, with Paraburdoo’s contribution to total production getting been reduced accordingly to retain continuous output as Channar’s has built up to more than 10Mt/y.

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