Photo by: Roy Hill
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Despite having loaded first ore from the Roy Hill mine, in Western Australia, the project developer has again warned of a delay in the shipment.
Roy Hill said this week that owing to progressive commissioning and operational and safety constraints on the first shipment required by the Pilbara Ports Authority, the departure of the first shipment on the MV Anangel Explorer has been delayed until next week.
The $10-billion Roy Hill mine had initially missed its September 30 ship-loading target, with CEO Barry Fitzgerald blaming problematic commissioning at the mine.
Meanwhile, Roy Hill chairperson Gina Rinehart said this week that the mine had succeeded despite naysayers.
Speaking at the Sydney Mining Club, Rinehart said that Roy Hill had taken the decision to develop the mine despite several recommendations against the decision, and previous drilling by major BHP Billiton delivering no solid results.
“Fortunately for us, BHP’s exploration programme hadn’t been successful, with their limited drilling not hitting the right areas,” Rinehart said.
She noted that Roy Hill exploration programme had been financed by a trickle of money from Hancock Prospecting, with the aim of carrying out as much work as possible with limited funds.
The Roy Hill project comprised an openpit mine, a 55-million-tonne-a-year wet processing plant, 344 km of rail line and a two-berth iron-ore port facility at Port Hedland.
The bulk of Roy Hill’s output is under long-term contract to the mine’s Asian partners, Posco of South Korea, Marubeni of Japan and China Steel of Taiwan.