Features

Australia’s iron
giant
Over the
Over the past
past few
few years,
years, Western
Western Australian
Australian
iron-ore producers
iron-ore producers have
have been
been responding
responding to to
surging demand
surging demand with
with major
major investments
investments in in new
new
mines and
mines and infrastructure.
infrastructure. MQW
MQW looks
looks at
at the
the
industry today,
industry today, where
where it
it has
has come
come from,
from, and
and
what the
what the future
future may
may hold.
hold.

S
ince production began in the state
in the 1960s, Western Australia
has become one of the driving
forces in world iron-ore mining. Built on
a foundation of high-grade ores and a
geographical location that has proved
fundamental to serving the needs of Far
Eastern steelmakers, the industry grew
steadily through the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
During the past few years, however,
there has been a dramatic acceleration
in the pace of development, as the
state’s established producers have
invested heavily in new capacity. At the
same time, a number of new entrants
have been lining up financing with the
aim of cashing in on what has been a
very lucrative market, especially since Top: Drill pattern at Paraburdoo mine (Hamersley Iron) - Photo courtesy of Pilbara
Chinese demand for high-quality iron Iron.
ore has tightened the supply:demand Right, Map 1: Iron-ore provinces in western Australia.
relationship to an unprecedented Above, Map 2: Operations and development projects in the Pilbara Province.
degree. Source (both maps): WA Dept of Industry and Resources.
By way of illustration, during calendar
2004 operations in Western Australia increase of 2004’s output came towards Iron commissioned its first mine a year
(WA) in which Rio Tinto has either full the end of the year indicates clearly the ago. Other participants whose projects
ownership or an equity holding produced momentum with which WA’s iron-ore are various stages of development
126.6 Mt of ore, compared to 118.5 Mt in industry is continuing to develop. include Midwest Corporation, Aztec
2003. In terms of attributable production, While the two big producers currently Resources and Fortescue Metals Group,
Rio Tinto’s share of this amounted to have the lion’s share of the state’s of which the latter has major project
107.8 Mt last year and 102.6 Mt in 2003. productive capacity, they are by no proposals in the pipeline. Add to these
The state’s other principal producer, BHP means alone when it comes to bringing Hancock Prospecting, patiently waiting in
Billiton, reported attributable production new capacity on stream. Amongst the the wings and now awaiting the outcome
for the year of 81.3 Mt out of a total of smaller producers, Portland Ltd has a of legal deliberations over pre-emptive
94.5 Mt from the operations in which well-established operation in the Yilgarn rights in relation to its Hope Downs
it has interests. That the bulk of the area - not the Pilbara - while Mt Gibson joint venture with South African iron-ore


26 Mining & Quarry World  March 2005

 Features
miner, Kumba Resources, and there is
little shortage of interest in WA’s iron-ore
opportunities.

An unimaginable resource
While WA’s iron-ore industry is a product
of the past 40 years or so, its iron-ore
resources were known about in concept,
if not quantitatively, for much longer.
Prospecting in the Pilbara - the region
of northwestern WA inland from Port
Hedland and Dampier, 1,200 km
northeast of Perth - in the 1800s
revealed the presence of iron ore, but
with domestic demand satisfied by
occurrences in the east of Australia,
there was little incentive to develop here.
The region’s isolation was enhanced in
1938 when the Australian government
placed a ban on iron-ore exports, and it
was not until the ban was lifted in 1960
that investment in infrastructure and
production facilities began to flow in.
However, WA’s iron-ore industry
was already established before joint ventures between the established being opened. It should be noted
developments began in the Pilbara. producers and oriental steelmakers, that the graph shows total Australian
In 1950, BHP (then the Broken Hill initially from Japan and more recently production and export figures, not just
Proprietary Company, and Australia’s from China. those for WA, although the state has
largest steelmaker) began mining WA’s iron-ore industry has involved contributed over 95% of national iron-
on Cockatoo Island, off the state’s some famous individual names as well, ore output in recent years. For the first
northwest coast, in an operation that amongst whom rank people such as nine months of 2004, ABARE estimated
lasted until 1986. Initially, this was a Thomas Price, who worked for Kaiser that WA operations had contributed
purely domestic operation, providing ore Steel and after whom Hamersley Iron’s 166.8 Mt out of national production
for BHP’s own steelmaking activities. first operation was named, and Lang of 170.2 Mt, the remainder coming
Also offshore, the company’s Koolan Hancock, of whom the story is told that from operations in South Australia and
Island mine ran from 1964 to 1996. he realised the Pilbara’s potential in Tasmania.
By the end of the 1960s, both the early 1950s after flying through the A key feature of the Pilbara is its
Hamersley Iron (then owned by a Hamersley Ranges but had to wait until arid/tropical climate. Rainfall is highly
joint venture between Rio Tinto and the government lifted its ban on claim variable from year to year, averaging
US company, Kaiser Steel) and staking ten years later before being 300-400 mm, although in March 2004 a
a consortium including BHP had able to develop investor interest in it. cyclone delivered more than 300 mm of
established their first mines in the As Graph 1 shows, there have rain in 36 hours to the central Pilbara,
Pilbara, at Mt Tom Price and Mt been a number of clear stages in the the first significant rain in four years.
Whaleback respectively. US investment development of WA’s iron-ore industry, Daytime temperatures can reach 47°C
was also involved in the establishment with jumps in Australian production in the summer, but are typically in the
of Robe River Iron Associates, which and exports coinciding with new mines mid-20°Cs in winter.
brought its first mine into production in
1972; Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. was a
founder partner in Robe and, as events
have turned out, seems likely to return to
WA’s iron-ore industry in the near future
if its agreed take-over of Portman is
successful.
Other companies have come and
gone as well in the intervening years.
Rio Tinto bought out Kaiser’s holding
in Hamersley in the 1970s, and in 2000
bought North Ltd, which in the mean
time had become the majority holder
in Robe River after its own merger
with Peko Wallsend. Cleveland Cliffs
had also long gone, while the focus of
investment interest during the 1980s
and 90s switched from ‘Old World’
mining companies to Far Eastern iron- Above, Graph 1: Total Australian iron ore production and exports, 1960-2003.
ore consumers. Thus several of the Source: ABARE.
major developments that took place Top: A typical water hole in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
during these two decades involved Photo courtesy of BHP Billiton.



Mining & Quarry World  March 2005 27

 Features
Loading iron ore at BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Port Hedland shiploading
facility. Photo courtesy of BHP Billiton.
Ores for all markets
The success of WA’s iron-ore industry
can, in part, be put down to the fact
that it is not dependent on only one
type of ore, but has had the opportunity
to exploit a range of different grades.
In addition, changes in steelmaking
technology have gone hand-in-hand
with production scheduling, such that
ore types that were less marketable 20
or 30 years ago now find ready outlets
as steelmakers’ own requirements have
changed. Add to this the producers’
ability to supply their ores as lump,
fines, pellets or direct-reduced iron, and
it is easy to see the attraction of WA’s
products across the market sphere.
While all of the state’s iron resources
are derived from original banded iron
formations (BIFs), different weathering
regimes have led to the formation of
several major ore types, including the
Brockman, Marra Mamba, Channel and
Detrital ores. In addition, two main host
BIFs have been identified, the 3,300 Ma
Nimingarra Formation and the 2,500 Ma
Brockman Formation, along with other
BIFs of lesser economic importance.
Across the ore provinces, in-situ
leaching processes associated with
supergene enrichment have led to the
replacement of the original sedimentary
iron oxides, carbonates and silicates
by different, higher-grade oxides, with
metamorphic and hydrothermal activity
having been locally important in the
transformation process.
There are some important differences
between the various ore types in terms
of both chemical and physical properties.
Some Brockman ores, such as those
found at BHP’s Mt Whaleback and
Hamersley’s Mt Tom Price for example,
consist mainly of haematite (Fe2O3) .
Often low in phosphorus, these have
traditionally provided the best lump
ore from the Pilbara. Other Brockman
ores, however, can include a goethite
(FeO(OH)) component, leading to a
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28
lower proportion of high-value lump
material in the product mix, while
Brockman satellite ores, which only
formed around 150 Ma, consist of both
martite (haematite that has replaced
magnetite) and goethite.
Marra Mamba martite-goethite ores,
by contrast, while also high-grade, are
softer than Brockman ores and produce
less lump material. Some occurrences,
such as at BHP’s Mining Area C and
Hamersley’s Marandoo, contain harder
Marra Mamba ores, however, leading to
an improved lump yield.
Channel iron deposits are different
from bedded ores, having been formed
by the accumulation of haematite-
rich gravels in slow-moving stream
beds, probably only at 5-25 Ma. With
goethite forming a cementing matrix to
these haematite cores, many of these
deposits were later partially eroded,
leaving remnants that are found across
the Pilbara, and particularly in the Robe
River area. One of the highest-grade
channel ores occurs at Yandigoogina,
while elsewhere in the Pilbara this
type of deposit, also known as pisolitic
limonite, can vary widely in grade.
Finally, detrital deposits are, as
the name suggests, found where
weathering has eroded earlier deposits
and has deposited ore fragments in
traps such as drainage channels. This
type of deposit formed the basis for
mining at Hamersley’s Brockman No.2
operation, now depleted.
BHPB’s Mineral Resource Base
Ore Type Resource (Mt)
Brockman low P 1401
Brockman high P 1862
Detrital (lump) 74
Marra Mamba 2139
Pisolite 1334
Yarrie 234
Source: BHPB (June 2004)
Mining & Quarry World  March 2005
BHP Billiton’s consortia
BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s operations in
the Pilbara encompass six mining
operations that are linked to its port and
processing facilities at Port Hedland
by 696 km of railway infrastructure that
runs a fleet of nearly 50 locomotives
and over 2,200 ore wagons. BHPB also
owns the Boodarie Iron hot briquetted
iron plant, designed to produce direct-
reduced iron as a means of adding
value to ore fines, but currently on care-
and-maintenance.
Mine construction began at Mt
Whaleback in 1967, the deposit having
been discovered ten years earlier, with
the first ore being exported from Port
Hedland to Japan in early 1969. BHP
developed Mt Whaleback as a partner
in the Mt Newman consortium that now
includes the Japanese firms, Mitsui and
CI Minerals/Itochu, the three companies
also having established similar joint
ventures to cover the development of
the Mt Goldsworthy and Yandi projects.
Today, BHPB has an 85% holding in
all three joint ventures, and wholly
owns the Jimblebar operation. At Area
C, the three joint venturers have been
joined by the South Korean steelmaker,
POSCO, with a 20% holding in C
deposit, while BHPB has entered into
an agreement over future production
from Jimblebar with four Chinese steel
companies taking a 40% holding in the
Wheelarra part of the property.
The Mt Newman operation
encompasses output from Mt
Whaleback, which holds the largest
reserves of high-grade Brockman
remaining in the Pilbara, and satellite
orebodies 23, 25, 29 and 30. Jimblebar
(formerly named McCamey’s Monster,
and which BHP acquired in 1992) is
some 30 km east of Newman. BHPB’s
Yandi and Area C mines lie around
100 km northwest of Newman, while the
company’s Yarrie operation is completely
separated from the others, 220 km east
of Port Hedland, with which it has its
own rail link.
Typical products from the various
operations include blended high-
grade lump ore and fines from Mt
Newman/Jimblebar, high-grade lump
and fines plus high-silica ores from Mt
Goldsworthy/Yarrie, pisolitic (channel
ore) fines and lump from Yandi, and
Marra Mamba lump and fines from
Area C. In addition, the Mt Newman
operation supplied feed to the Boodarie
Iron direct-reduction plant. Typical iron
contents of the various products are in
the range 64.0-65.4% for materials from
Mt Newman, 58.5-58.9% from Yandi,
57.0-65.1 from Goldsworthy and 62.1-
63.0 from Mining Area C.
As of June 2004, BHBP reported an

estimated reserves at its Mt Newman
operations to be 558 Mt of Brockman
ore at Mt Whaleback (453 Mt proved
and 105 Mt probable), 26 Mt at satellite
orebodies 23 and 25 (18 Mt proved and
8 Mt probable), and 210 Mt at Jimblebar
(154 Mt proved and 56 Mt probable),
plus 66 Mt of Marra Mamba ore at
satellite orebodies 29, 30 and 35 (52
Mt proved and 14 Mt probable). All of
these are used to form Newman blended
ores for marketing. In addition to its
existing operations, BHPB has a number
of properties in the Newman area for
which permitting has been completed
or is being sought. Of these, satellite
orebodies 18 and 24 have the largest
resources, with 123 Mt (97 Mt measured,
22 Mt indicated and 4 Mt inferred) and
104 Mt (indicated) of low-phosphorus
Brockman ore respectively.
Reserves of ores reported as at June
2004 used for creating BHPB’s Mt
Goldsworthy blend, based on output
from the Yarrie and Nimingarra mines,
are much lower at around 13 Mt (9 Mt
proved and 3 Mt probable), while
Area C’s various deposits contain an
estimated 499 Mt (343 Mt proved and
156 Mt probable) and Yandi 901 Mt
(555 Mt proved and 346 Mt probable).
Major investments
Speaking a year ago at an analysts’
meeting, the president of BHPB’s iron
ore operations, Graeme Hunt, reminded
his audience that the iron ore business
has been going through a stage of
unprecedented demand. “Fortunately,”
he said, “we have been able to lift our
performance to meet that demand.
We have broken production records
right across the business, lifting from
around about 70 Mt/y up to a 90 Mt/y
rate currently. On top of that,” he went
on, “we are well positioned to capitalise
on the investments we have made in
Area C, which was commissioned last
October [2003], and the port and rail
expansion which was commissioned at
the end of January this year [2004].
“The acceleration to a balanced system
capacity of 100 Mt is within a few weeks
of being completed,” Mr Hunt added, “and
the rapid growth project to accelerate
the system capacity to 110 Mt is ahead
of schedule. We are also looking at
platforms to ensure that we have long-
term success. One of those is moving into
a feasibility study on the next expansion,
which will take us to the order of 145 Mt,
the focus there being not just on capacity
but on efficiency as well.” Of this 145 Mt,
60 Mt/y would come from Mt Newman,
40 Mt from Area C and 45 Mt from Yandi,
BHPB is suggesting.
The projects Mr Hunt described in
his remarks - developing Area C and

Ore from BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s new mine at Orebody 18, near
Newman, Western Australia. Photo courtesy of BHP Billiton.
the expansions to the company’s port
capacity - have both incurred major
investment. In 2004 BHPB completed a
A$1,000 asset-development programme
that increased its capacity by around
25% over three years. Development of
Area C included a 39 km-long spur rail
line to service the mine, which has an
initial capacity of 16 Mt/y but which can
also be expanded at low incremental
cost to meet future market demand.
Expansion to 23 Mt/y has already
taken place as part of the company’s
A$145 million Rapid Growth Project,
Boodarie Iron: a step too far?
B HP commissioned its Boodarie
Iron hot briquetted iron facility in
1999 at a capital cost of some
A$2,600 million. The first FINMET
plant in the world, using technology
developed jointly by Voest Alpine
Industries and FIOR de Venezuela,
Boodarie was designed to process
5.7 Mt/y of high-grade Mt Newman
iron-ore fines into partially metallised
iron granules that are then compressed
into 2.5 Mt/y of briquettes for use in
electric-arc furnace and blast-furnace
operations.
The process uses hydrogen and
carbon monoxide produced from natural
gas in a steam reforming plant to
produce metallic iron directly from iron
oxide by direct reduction. Ore conveyed
from the Finucane Island stockpiles
provided the feedstock, with gravity and
magnetic separation being used to raise
the iron content of the fines to around
68%. After drying, the ore was metered
into a four-train reactor plant, with the
granular metallic iron product being
briquetted at a temperature of 650°C
before the briquettes were conveyed
back to Finucane Island for shiploading.
Mining & Quarry World  March 2005
Features
announced in early 2004.
Meanwhile, the company’s Products
and Capacity Expansion (PACE) project
focused on its port and processing
facilities and included a new stockpile
area, a lump re-screening facility and
a second berth at the Finucane Island
shiploading terminal. Other upgrades
included modifications to handling
systems at Nelson Point, upgrading the
under-harbour tunnel conveyor to
10,000 t/h and the addition
and expansion of rail sidings to
accommodate longer trains.
Right from the beginning, the plant
proved unable to meet its targets,
with the result that BHP wrote down
its value on several occasions, finally
taking a A$794 million after-tax
charge on its March 2000 quarterly
results. The company persevered with
Boodarie Iron, however, with output
slowly ramping up despite a technical
breakdown that resulted in BHPB
invoking force majeure on briquette
shipments in March 2002.
In the year to June 2003, the plant
produced 1.67 Mt of briquettes, but
in May 2004, BHPB was again forced
to close it, following an accident
there. Operations having remained
suspended whilst investigations
took place, last November BHPB
announced that the facility was to be
placed on care-and-maintenance until
a decision had been made as to its
future. At that time, Boodarie Iron’s
vice-president, Anthony Kirke, said that
the company would require several
months to fully consider all of the
available options for the plant including
a resumption of operations, alternative
uses for the facility, or full closure.
29
 Features
Other projects may have been smaller,
but have also had a significant impact on
operation efficiency. For instance, BHPB
has increased the number of stockpiles
for various products at the port
allowing two ore-trains to be dumped
simultaneously, so reducing both the
average time that trains are held at the
port (by around 20%) and the number
of backlogs. Elsewhere, a study found
that inaccurate weighing equipment
was resulting in its mine trucks being
underloaded by around 7%, so fixing
this problem helped to optimise hauling
capacities and hence truck utilisation.
Ore types for each market
Both major Pilbara iron miners have the
ability to produce a range of products
that satisfy their customers’ specific
chemical and physical specifications.
HIsmelt:
New iron-making technology
B y mid-2005, the world’s first
commercial-scale HIsmelt®
plant should be operational. Having
begun research into the potential for
a new system for producing metallic
iron from iron-ore fines in the early
1980s, within ten years CRA (before
its merger to form today’s Rio Tinto)
had commissioned a US$105 million,
100,000 t/y-capacity demonstration
plant at Kwinana. The plant produced
its first hot metal in 1993, with
subsequent design changes being
made in order to optimise the process
before Rio Tinto and its partners in the
HIsmelt joint venture (Nucor, Mitsubishi
and Shougang Corp.) committed the
A$400 million investment needed to
build an 800,000 t/y plant there in 2003.
HIsmelt is a direct iron-making
process in which iron-ore fines and/or
other iron-containing materials and
ordinary thermal coal are injected
directly into a molten iron bath to
produce pig iron. The reactions
take place under pressure inside a
vertical smelt reduction vessel, which
is refractory lined within the hearth
and water-cooled above. The hearth
contains a molten iron bath, with a thick
slag layer lying over the metal. Slag-free
hot metal is continuously tapped from
the vessel while slag is batch tapped.
Long-term testwork has shown that
the process can handle a range of ore
types and feed sizes, including minus-
6 mm ore fines and typical pellet-feed
material, high-phosphorus ore fines
from the Pilbara (with the phosphorus
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30
By way of illustration of this capability,
speaking at the Australian Journal of
Mining’s 7th Annual Global Iron Ore
And Steel Forecast Conference a year
ago, BHPB’s Graeme Hunt noted that
his company’s products generally fit
within three niches. “First, Mt Newman
ores are our high-haematite, high-Fe,
low-LOI (loss on ignition) ores and are
mined from our Brockman deposits.
The chemical, granulating and sintering
properties of Mt Newman High Grade
Fines means that it is increasingly
popular with inland Chinese customers.
“Similarly, our High Grade Mt
Newman Lump is appreciated for its
high Fe, as well as its high reducibility
and low alkalis, though this product
remains popular outside China as well.
The remaining resources from our
Goldsworthy operations, centred around
reporting to the slag) and steel-plant
waste, including mill scale, fines,
dusts and sludges. In terms of fuel,
the process testwork encompassed
materials ranging low-volatile coke
breeze to high-volatile coals.
In the process coal, iron-bearing fines
and fluxes are simultaneously injected
into the molten iron bath using nitrogen
gas as a carrier. The initial reaction
involves the formation of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen, with the metal
and slag erupting in a fountain as the
gases escape from the molten metal
in the bath. A hot-air blast above the
bath burns off the carbon monoxide and
hydrogen, providing the energy needed
to reduce the ore to metallic iron, while
offgases are drawn off, cooled and
scrubbed before being used as a fuel
for air heating or power generation.
Rio Tinto developed HIsmelt with
the aim of being able to use high-
phosphorus iron-ore while doing
away with conventional iron-making
processes such as coke-making,
sintering and pelletising. It can also be
used for recycling iron- and steel-plant
wastes, while producing a high-quality
pig iron that has a ready market in
electric-arc steelmaking.
Such is the confidence with which
the joint venture views the potential
for HIsmelt that in August 2003 it
licensed the technology to the Chinese
company, Laiwu Steel Group Ltd,
allowing it to build an 800,000 t/y
plant identical to that shortly to be
commissioned at Kwinana.
Mining & Quarry World  March 2005
Yarrie, are also in this class, and show
similarities to our Newman ores.
“Despite more than 34 years of
sustained production growth, we still
have about 1.4 Bt of low-phosphorous
Brockman resources available, mainly
in the Newman area, and approximately
1.8 Bt of high-phosphorous Brockman
ore in our resource base, sufficient to
support many more years of increased
production.
“Yandi has found itself a niche as a
high Value-In-Use (VIU), low-alumina
product, in particular for coastal mills.
After leading the market development
for low-alumina pisolite ore, demand for
our Yandi Fines product remains strong.
The main market for this product is high-
technology coastal mills, particularly in
Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. Our
Yandi Fines have been complemented
by the introduction of Yandi Lump. This
fills a niche for low-cost, low-alumina
ore for high-technology customers not
pushing the limits on blast-furnace
productivity. Most Yandi Lump is sold to
Japan.
“MAC™ ore, the product from our Area
C mine, is one of the new generation
Marra Mamba products which is aimed
at satisfying the increasing demand for
high value-in-use, low-gangue ores. The
high VIU ores like Yandi and MAC™
have desirable chemistry but require
optimised sintering practices to ensure
high productivity in customer steel
plants.”
Mr Hunt went on to provide a
geographical breakdown of BHPB’s
markets for the preceding financial year.
Japan accounted for 42%, he said,
China 23%, South Korea 15%, Australia
10% (including fines processed into
briquetted iron), Taiwan 7% and Europe
3% of the tonnage sold.
Rio Tinto’s Pilbara portfolio
The Rio Tinto group’s iron-ore operations
in WA encompass two separate
production organisations: the company’s
original Hamersley Iron and Robe River
Iron Associates, of which Rio Tinto
acquired majority ownership through
its purchase of North Ltd in 2000. Last
year, Rio Tinto created Pilbara Iron
to manage its Pilbara mining, rail and
export facilities on behalf of Hamersley
and Robe River, which remain
independent and continue to market
their output separately. Pilbara Iron now
has responsibility for nine mines, three
ports and the largest privately owned
railway in the world, handling more than
130 Mt/y of iron ore. Rio Tinto’s iron
ore group also includes HIsmelt® , the
direct iron smelting technology for which
the first commercial plant is scheduled
for commissioning later this year at

Kwinana, some 40 km south of Perth on
WA’s west coast.
Hamersley Iron’s original mine, Mt
Tom Price, started production in 1966,
its low-phosphorus Brockman ore
still comprising the most important
constituent of the company’s direct-
shipping ore blend. Part of the output
from Mt Tom Price has been replaced
with ore from Marandoo, 45 km away,
which Hamersley commissioned as a
13 Mt/y operation in 1994 as its first
source of Marra Mamba ore.
Mt Tom Price was joined in 1972 by
Paraburdoo, which today is operated as
part of a single complex with Channar.
A 60:40% joint venture between
Hamersley and China Iron & Steel
Industry and Trade Group Corporation,
Channar was opened in 1990, giving
the complex a capacity of around
21 Mt/y of ore.
With Paraburdoo’s reserves on the
point of exhaustion, its capacity is being
replaced by ore from the Eastern Range
deposit, 10 km away, which has been
developed by the BaoHI Ranges joint
venture in which Hamersley has a 54%
stake and Shanghai Baosteel Group
Corporation 46%. Hamersley is the
mine operator, and is to supply Baosteel
with an average of 10 Mt/y of iron-ore
products for 20 years.
Hamersley opened its Brockman
operation in 1992. Located some 60 km
Mt Tom Price:
Pilbara mainstay
O pened in 1966, Mt Tom Price
is the longest-established of
the Pilbara mines. Based on an ore
resource 8 km long by 1 km wide,
the main pit is now some 400 m
deep. Ore is produced from up to ten
individual pits according to blending
requirements, with the production in
2004 of 20 Mt of ore requiring the
removal of a further 28 Mt of waste.
The mine has a fleet of Bucyrus,
Driltech, Qubex and SKS rigs for
blasthole drilling, with Dyno-Nobel
Anfo and emulsion used for blasting.
Bench heights are typically 6-7 m. The
operation relies on six Hitachi and
Terex hydraulic excavators/shovels
for loading, with ore and waste being
handled by ten Terex MT4400 and 11
Komatsu 830E trucks.
Run-of-mine ore is processed
through one of two plants. Low-grade
shaly ore is first screened at 200
mm, with minus-200 mm material
forming the feed for the Tom Price

Features
northwest of Tom Price, Brockman
produced high-grade detrital ore until
1998, then moved to working bedded
iron ores. Following a major upgrade,
the mine reopened in 2003 with a
potential capacity of 8 Mt/y. Future
expansion in this district is focused
on the nearby Nammuldi mine, which
produces Marra Mamba ores.
The company’s most recent operation,
Yandicoogina, opened in 1998 and
produces a separate iron-ore product,
Yandi (HIY) fines. Located about 90 km
northwest of Newman, Yandicoogina has
recently been expanded to a capacity of
36 Mt/y from a single open-pit operation.
By comparison with Hamersley’s
high-grade haematite ores, Robe River’s Above: A haul truck at Paraburdoo.
operations were founded on lower-grade (Hamersley Iron).
pisolite (limonite) material. Production at
the company’s mine near Pannawonica Below: Paraburdoo wet processing
began in 1972, with the output being plant.
processed to pellets as a means of
upgrading the iron content. However, Both photos courtesy of Pilbara Iron.
changed economics brought the closure
of the pelletising operation in 1980, after clean ore, Mesa J also produces pisolite
which Robe’s output focused on the that is contaminated with clay waste,
production of sinter fines. with two processing plants having been
During the 1990s, Robe’s mining was installed since 1999 to bring this material
firstly concentrated on the Mesa J back up to shipping specifications. Ore
deposit, with the development of West from Mesa J and West Angelas is railed
Angelas beginning in 1998. West 203 km and 420 km respectively to the
Angelas came on stream four years company’s processing and port facilities
later, adding Marra Mamba ore to at Cape Lambert.
Robe’s product line. Aside from shipping In terms of infrastructure, the Pilbara
Rail Company operates the transport
system from both Hamersley and Robe
River’s operations to Rio Tinto’s export
port facilities at Lambert Point and
Dampier. With a combined capacity
of 116 Mt/y, the two rail systems are
interconnected, allowing Hamersley to
concentrator. Here, heavy-medium
and gravity separation are used
to produce a higher iron-content
use Robe’s shipping facilities if required.
Dampier has two ship-loading
terminals, Parker Point and East
concentrate, the plant accounting Intercourse Island (EII), which between
for around 40% of the operation’s them have 23 live-blending stockpiles.
annual output. Plus-200 mm low- Meanwhile, Robe’s Port Walcott terminal
grade material is mixed with high- at Cape Lambert has different process
grade ore, with subsequent crushing
and screening to produce both lump
and fine products. Fines from both
processing routes are combined and
blended before loadout, with lump
products being handled separately.
Typical output from Mt Tom Price is in
the ratio 60% lump ore to 40% fines.
The operation’s workforce lives in
the nearby town of Tom Price, which
has a population of some 4,000 and
has medical, education and tourist
facilities. Mining is continuous on a 12-
hour shift basis, with a normal dayshift
for office workers. Development
plans include a feasibility study into
increasing the operation’s capacity
beyond its current 25 Mt/y.
Mining & Quarry World  March 2005 31
 Features
routes for the two main ore types
- pisolite and Marra Mamba - that it
handles. Pisolite ore from Mesa J is
crushed and screened to produce fines
and lump ore for shipping, while West
Angelas ore only requires final blending
in the stockyard before shipping. A
second ship-loader was added to the
terminal in 2001, ready for the increased
throughput when West Angelas came on
stream.
US company’s Yilgarn target
At the beginning of January, the US
company, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., made
a A$605 million offer for WA’s third-
largest iron-ore producer, Portman Ltd.
If the deal goes through, and it has the
backing of Portman’s Board, it would
mark Cleveland-Cliffs’ return to WA after
an absence of several decades.
The rationale for Cleveland-Cliffs’
move is fairly straight-forward:
diversification away from its reliance on
the US domestic market for its products.
As the US’s leading iron-ore pellet
producer, with operations based on
six mines in Minnesota, Michigan and
Newfoundland, the company sees the
acquisition of Portman as a means of
getting access to the booming markets
in the Far East.
West Angelas:
21st Century operation
R obe River’s flagship operation,
West Angelas was commissioned
in 2002 following a four-year develop-
ment schedule. Its initial capacity of
7 Mt/y was quickly increased to 20
Mt. The operation’s four pits exploit
enriched Marra Mamba deposits,
producing lump and fine ore with a
significantly higher iron content than
Robe’s Mesa J mine. Reserves are
currently estimated at 440 Mt, with the
potential for significant additional re-
sources. Ore production in 2004 was
23 Mt, requiring the removal of
64 Mt of waste.
West Angelas uses four Ingersoll
Rand and Reedrill blasthole rigs,
with Dyno-Nobel Anfo for blasting.
In addition to four Hitachi hydraulic
shovels, the mine uses three wheel
loaders, two LeTourneau L1350s and a
Komatsu WA1200, with ore and waste
haulage by a fleet of nine Komatsu
830Es and 13 Komatsu 730Es. Haul
distances vary according to the relative
position of the pits, ore dumps and
waste-storage areas.
Run-of-mine ore is subjected to

32
In this context, Portman is well-placed
as an acquisition target, with around
three-quarters of its annual output being
sold into China and the remainder
going to Japanese steel mills. Where
the company differs from the other
major WA producers, though, is that its
principal operation, Koolyanobbing, is in
the state’s Yilgarn region, 425 km east
of Perth, with a subsidiary mine further
north on the coast at Cockatoo Island,
where BHP had its initial production
centre.
Portman began mining at Koolyan-
obbing in 1994. Its production has
grown substantially in recent years,
from 1.9 Mt in 2000 to 4.9 Mt in 2003
and 5.2 Mt last year. In October 2004,
meanwhile, Portman committed the
A$55 million investment needed to
increase production at Koolyanobbing
to 8 Mt/y, centred on capacity increases
to its crushing and screening capacity
and on the railway infrastructure that
carries ore to the company’s outlet at
Esperance, 578 km south of the mine
on WA’s south coast. Aside from the
main Koolyanobbing orebody, a year
ago Portman commissioned operations
at its Mt Jackson and Windarling
deposits, around 100 km to the north,
with ore being trucked to the existing
two-stage crushing and screening
to produce minus-6.3 mm fines and
plus-6.3/minus-31.5 mm lump ore, with
the output being in the proportion 40%
lump to 60% fines.
The mine is operated on a fly-in, fly-
out basis and is serviced by a stand-
alone village that can accommodate
250 people. Mine personnel work 12-
hour shifts on a 2:1 roster (seven days,
seven nights and seven days off).
Construction is currently under way to
lift West Angelas’ output to 25 Mt/y.
As at Mt Tom Price, dust is generally
controlled at West Angelas by the
application of water sourced from mine
dewatering or dedicated borefields,
or other collected water. Post-mining
rehabilitation focuses on stabilising
the surface, applying topsoil that has
been stockpiled or has come from
run-of-mine activity, and then ripping
on contour to minimise erosion and
maximise water retention for plant
growth. Areas are occasionally seeded
using tailored provenance seed mixes
(gathered from the immediate area) to
ensure the same genetic seed stock.
Mining & Quarry World  March 2005
processing plant at Koolyanobbing.
Exploration in the district is continuing
to increase the company’s resource
base there, with the most recent
estimates totalling reserves of 95 Mt
within a 150 Mt resource. The
mineralisation here is mainly BIF-
hosted haematite and goethite with a
62.5-63.5% iron content.
Portman resumed mining at Cockatoo
Island in 2000, working deposits that
had previously been sterilised beneath
BHP’s former mine infrastructure.
The operation, a joint venture with the
mining contractor, Henry Walker Eltin,
produced 620,000 t of high-grade ore
last year, with a target production this
year of 1.2 Mt. Although the operation
is based on a very limited reserve, now
standing at around 2 Mt grading 68%
Fe, and is reliant on constructing sea-
retention walls to access the remaining
ore, Portman believes that there is
exploration potential at Cockatoo Island
that could extend the operation’s life.
Staged development
in the MidWest
Aside from the massive resources in
the Pilbara, there is clearly production
potential from some of the smaller ore
zones that occur in various areas of WA,
a point that has clearly been appreciated
by Mt Gibson Iron Ltd. The company
brought its Tallering Peak deposit, which
it bought from Kingstream Steel (now
Midwest Corp.) in mid-2002, on stream
at the beginning of last year, with plans
to ramp production up from an initial
1.8 Mt/y to 2.5 Mt/y of direct-shipping
haematite ore.
Tallering Peak is one of the company’s
four properties that lie in WA’s MidWest,
to east of the port of Geraldton. Of the
others, the Mount Gibson deposits
contain both haematite and magnetite,
while both Koolanooka South and
Wolla Wolla are magnetite resources.
Infrastructure for these involves
moving output by both road and rail to
Geraldton for export to China.
Having established its operations
around haematite production, the
second phase of Mt Gibson Iron’s
development plans centre on its
agreement with Hong Kong-based Asia
Iron Holdings to supply up to 10 Mt/y of
magnetite concentrate to feed five new
pellet plants, four to be built at Longtan
in China and one at Geraldton. Under
its agreement, Mount Gibson will take
a 30% equity holding in Asia Iron, and
will manage the operation of up to four
magnetite mines in the MidWest region.
The first of these, at Koolanooka South,
is scheduled for start-up in 2006 at a
rate of 2.5 Mt/y of concentrate.
Mt Gibson Iron has sales agreements
 Features
with Chinese customers covering
1.6 Mt/y from Tallering Peak for the life
of the mine, with any excess production
being sold on spot markets. The
company has measured and indicated
haematite resources totalling 32.3 Mt at
Tallering Peak and Mount Gibson, and
a further 231 Mt of magnetite resources
at Mount Gibson, in which it has a 54%
holding.
Also in this part of the state, Midwest
Corp. has its own development plans
for its Koolanooka/Blue Hills and
Weld Range deposits. High-grade ore
was mined at Koolanooka in the late
1960s, and Midwest is now looking at
producing 1 Mt/y of direct-shipping ore
initially as a means of generating cash
flow, while continuing to evaluate the
potential for pellet production based
on the deposit’s magnetite ores. The
company is also evaluating an existing
fine-ore stockpile at Koolanooka, which
it acquired in mid-2004, and the direct-
shipping ore potential at Weld Range.

Hope springs eternal ...

Of the other iron-ore projects still
in the development stage in WA,
probably the longest-lived is Hancock
Prospecting’s Hope Downs. Located
some 75 km northwest of Newman, the
deposit contains a reserve of 800 Mt of
Brockman and Marra Mamba-type ores,
and would cost some A$1,700 million
to develop as a 25 Mt/y operation,
assuming that a dedicated railway
would have to be built.
However, moves are currently under
way to gain access to BHPB’s existing
rail line for Hope Downs and other
independent potential producers,
which would cut development costs
significantly. In recent years, Hope
Downs has been under evaluation
by a joint venture between Hancock
Prospecting and South Africa’s Kumba
Resources, but Anglo American’s
acquisition of a 66.6% controlling
holding in Kumba provoked Hancock to
claim pre-emptive rights over Kumba’s
share in the joint venture. The parties
took their dispute to arbitration, with a
ruling given late last year in Hancock’s
favour, although the position has yet to
be finally resolved. Should Hancock buy
out Kumba’s share, it could have Hope
Downs in production by 2007.
Also seeking access to BHPB’s rail
system, but with other options available,
Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) has
estimated that some A$1,850 million will
be needed to bring its own Christmas
Creek prospect into production. While
FMG has already signed an agreement
with the Chinese construction group,
CREC, to build a 520 km-long railway
from the area to Port Hedland, its

Ship loading at East Intercourse Island (Hamersley Iron).
Photo courtesy of Pilbara Iron.
attempt to have BHPB’s rail system
opened to third-party use concerns
the separate development of its Mindy
Mindy prospect, nearer to Newman. The
company’s proposal for a new open-use
railway and port terminal has received
‘major project facilitation’ status from the
WA government.
Further north, meanwhile, Aztec
Resources is in the process of
evaluating the residual resource at
Koolan Island, another of BHP’s former
operations. By the end of last year, the
company had outlined sufficient high-
grade resources to support a 2 Mt/y
operation for 15 years, with only
crushing and screening needed in order
to create a marketable product. The
company plans to have a feasibility
study completed before mid-2005.
What all of these projects - and the
others currently being commissioned by
BHPB, Rio Tinto, Portman, Mt Gibson
and Midwest - have in common is that
they are supported by long-term offtake
agreements, mainly with Chinese or
Japanese customers. Most of the
recent development momentum has
been fuelled by Chinese demand, with
Chinese steelmakers not only buying
WA’s iron ore, but following the lead
given by their Japanese counterparts in
the 1970s and 80s in investing directly
in production capacity though joint-
venture participation.
Neither is the WA state government
holding back on its support for further
developments. Its commitment to
spend A$225 million in upgrading port
facilities at Esperance and Geraldton,
providing better facilities for Portman,
Mt Gibson and others to export their
products is evidence of this. Royalty
payments of over A$250 million a year
certainly provide the government with
an incentive to assist, to which must be
added both direct and indirect tax and
other income from the industry.
According to the 2003 edition of
Western Australian Iron Ore Industry,
published by the state’s Department of
Industry and Resources, WA’s iron-
ore expansion potential could boost
output to around 320 Mt/y, depending
on whether sufficient new rail capacity
is built. Given current expansion plans,
even that target might prove to be an
underestimate.

Mining & Quarry World  March 2005 33