Name and Location
Roy Hill iron-ore project, Pilbara, Australia.

Client
Hancock Prospecting (70%) and Posco, Marubeni Corporation, STX Corporation and China Steel Corporation (30%), with Posco and Marubeni each holding a 12.5% equity interest and the STX and China Steel corporations each holding a 2.5% equity interest in the company.

Project Description
The Roy Hill project has a defined mineralisation of more than 2.4-billion tons of +55% iron-ore, enough to sustain a mine life of more than 20 years.

The project involves the construction of a mine, a railway line and a port, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The geology of the Roy Hill deposit lends itself to a conventional openpit, drill-and-blast and truck-and-excavator bulk-mining method from multiple production benches. The mine will produce an estimated 68-million tons a year (wet) of run-of-mine at full production.

The bulk of the overburden and waste produced from mining activities will be dumped into previously mined-out pit voids.

The processing plant for the project will use low-risk proved technology and will be the largest single-feed processing plant in the region.

The processing plant will include three remote primary/secondary crushing stations, an overland conveying system, a crushed-ore stockpile, wet scrubbing and screening, tertiary crushing, product screening, desanding, sampling, stockyard stacking and a reclaim, as well as train load-out and tailings storage facilities.

A 344 km single-line, heavy-haul railway will be constructed to transport the processed iron-ore from the Roy Hill mine to a dedicated port stockyard facility, located to the south of Port Hedland. The independently owned and operated Roy Hill railway will operate five ore trains a day, each consisting of three locomotives hauling 232 ore cars, with a total payload of 31 450 t of ore.

Roy Hill’s purpose-built iron-ore port facility at Port Hedland will be constructed to receive, stockpile, screen and export 55-million tons a year (wet) of direct shipping iron-ore as lump and fines. The facility will also be designed to accommodate future expansion.

The port stockyard and rail-loop infrastructure will consist of an 11 250 t/h rail car dumper, a conveying system, two 13 000 t/h rail-mounted stackers, stockyards, a 12 000 t/h bucket wheel reclaimer, a surge bin facility and a screening house.

The wharf has been designed to accommodate an average vessel size of 206 000 t, but is capable of handling larger 320 000 t Capesize vessels.

The port outload and wharf facilities will incorporate four load-out conveyors, an 800-m-long two-berth wharf and a 14 400 t/h shiploader.

Value
$10-billion.

Duration
The project is expected to start production by September 2015.

Latest Developments
Mining personality Gina Reinhart has secured a $7.2-billion funding package for the Roy Hill iron-ore mine.

The debt package, which completes the funding for the $10-billion project, comprises loans and guarantees from five export credit agencies and a consortium of 19 commercial banks from Australia, Europe and Asian countries.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Decmil Group (Construction of fuel storage, loading and unloading
facilities, port and rail permanent infrastructure); NRW Holdings (earthworks for rail, bulk earthworks at site – plant pad, tails dam, rail loop); Forge and Duro Felguera (processing facility); AMEC/Halcrow (engineering for process plant and port), Calibre Global (engineering for rail); John Holland (track laying for rail); Central Systems (bridge construction); BGC Contracting (earthworks for port, construction of mine infrastructure – airport, ballast for rail); Brookfield Multiplex (construction of site nonprocess infrastructure buildings and Roy Hill mine camp); Perkins Builders (construction of remote operations centre); Downer EDI Mining (provision of mining services for four years); and McConnell Dowell (construction of port).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Roy Hill, tel +61 8 6143 1500, fax +61 8 6143 1600 or email info@royhill.com.au.
Decmil Group, tel +61 8 9368 8877 or fax +61 8 9368 8878.
NRW Holdings , tel +61 8 9232 420 or fax +61 8 9358 5515.
Forge Group, tel 61 8 6389 8500, fax +61 8 6389 8599 or email info@forgegroup.com.
Duro Felguera, tel +34 98 519 90 21, fax +34 98 519 90 63 or email logistica.dsi@durofelguera.com.
AMEC, Frank Stokes, +44 7712 008356 or email frank.stokes@amec.com.
Calibre Global , tel +61 8 9265 3000 or fax +61 8 9265 4000.
John Holland, tel +61 3 8698 9400 or fax +61 3 9696 1873.
Central Systems, tel +61 8 9443 2928 or +61 8 9443 2926.
BGC Contracting, tel +61 8 9442 2300 or fax +61 8 9442 2360.
Brookfield Multiplex, tel +61 2 9322 2000 or fax +61 2 9322 2001.
Perkins Builders, tel +61 8 9721 7300, fax +61 8 9791 1731 or email pb@perkinsbuilders.com.au.
Downer EDI Mining, tel +61 2 9468 9700, fax +61 2 9813 8915 or email info@downergroup.com.
McConnell Dowell, tel +61 3 9816 2400 or fax +61 3 9818 3553.