https://www.miningweekly.com

Rio Tinto aims for 'intelligent' Australian iron-ore mine

4th December 2017

By: Reuters

  

Font size: - +

SYDNEY – Rio Tinto next year will seek board approval to develop an "intelligent" iron ore mine at a cost of $2.2-billion, fully incorporating technologies such as robotics and driverless trains and trucks on a single site, the company's head of iron-ore said on Monday.

A feasibility study was under way to demonstrate the economics behind developing the Koodaideri mine in the Pilbara region of the state of Western Australia, said CE Iron Ore Chris Salisbury.

Rio Tinto extracts more than 300-million tonnes a year of ore in Australia, making it the world's second-biggest iron-ore miner after Brazilian giant Vale.

"We will bring all our technologies into a single place with a mine that is purpose-built to adapt those technologies," Salisbury told Reuters. "We are calling it our intelligent mine."

The Koodaideri lode would produce around 40-million tonnes per year by 2021, but could be expanded to yield 70-million tonnes or more at a later date, according to Salisbury.

He said the project fit into a strategy to produce ore tailored with iron content required by steel mill customers over simply mining as much as it can.

Iron ore accounted for more than two-thirds of Rio Tinto's $6.064-billion in underlying earnings last year.

Rio Tinto recently ran its first autonomous iron-ore train over a distance of almost 100 km as a part of its Autohaul project. It already runs much of its mining, transport and port logistics from an operations centre 1 500 km away in Perth.

Sainsbury also said that a shift in demand as China cleans up its steel industry will see cyclical premiums for higher-grade iron ore cemented as a permanent fixture in the market.

Beijing has ordered steel mills to modernize or shut down in order to clean up the country's air, leading to greater demand for higher grade ore that produce fewer emissions when processed into steel.

The discount for lower grade iron ore has widened to 40% below it benchmark from 30% at the start of the year, said Salisbury. Until recently, the gap between the lower-grade iron ore company's such as Fortescue Metals Group, Atlas Iron and other Australian producers mine and the benchmark was regarded as temporary and expected to narrow over time, Salisbury said.

"But in the last couple of months, yields firmed to the point where it is evident they are here to stay, it's not cyclical," he said.

Edited by Reuters

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION