Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore major Fortescue Metals on Friday officially opened its 40-million-tonne-a-year Kings Valley project, which forms part of the Solomon hub, in the Pilbara.
“Today marks one of the most important milestones in Fortescue’s history,” said chairperson Andrew Forrest.
“We announced a major expansion of our port, rail and mining operations in November 2010 and set ourselves the ambitious target of completing the projects by June 2014.”
The $9.2-billion expansion included the construction of the greenfield Solomon hub project, which included the Kings Valley project and the nearby 20-million-tonne-a-year Firetail mine, an expansion of the Christmas Creek mine to 50-million tonnes a year, and major extensions of Fortescue’s world-class port and rail facilities.
“The Firetail and Kings Valley projects have evolved Fortescue’s product mix. Channel iron deposit ore produced from Kings Valley will become a new standalone product while ore from Firetail is blended with Chichester ores to create the well-received Fortescue Blend,” said CEO Nev Power.
The Kings Valley project has lifted Fortescue’s total production to 155-million tonnes a year.