Name of the Project
Roy Hill iron-ore project.

Location
Pilbara, Australia.

Client
Roy Hill Holding, in which Hancock Prospecting is the major shareholder (70%).  The remaining 30% equity interest is held through a consortium comprising Marubeni Corporation, POSCO and China Steel Corporation.

Marubeni Corporation holds 15%, POSCO 12.5% and China Steel Corporation 2.5%.

Project Description
The 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 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.

Jobs to be Created
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
$10-billion.

Duration
Hancock started loading its first iron-ore shipment at the beginning of December 2015.

Latest Developments
Roy Hill aims to ship 25-million tonnes of iron-ore by the end of this year, the company's managing director has said.

The mine is expected to reach full operations in the January to March quarter.

Roy Hill shipped its first iron-ore cargo in December last year, marking the start-up of the last of the mining-boom era megaprojects in the country.

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.