PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore developer Roy Hill has stared loading its first ore from the Roy Hill mine, in Western Australia, after the MV Anangel Explorer docked in Port Hedland earlier this week.
“This is a truly fantastic occasion as we receive the first vessel alongside the Roy Hill wharf and the first of our consistent product is loaded for our partners in Asia,” Roy Hill chairperson Gina Rinehart said on Tuesday.
The $10-billion Roy Hill mine had initially missed its September 30 ship-loading target, with CEO Barry Fitzgerald blaming a problematic commissioning at the mine.
With the loading of low phosphorous product starting immediately, the MV Anangel Explorer was expected to sale in early December.
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.