OCEANIA

Pilbaras early expansion

15 years ago

Rio Tinto is accelerating its iron ore expansion programme in the Pilbara region of Western Australia with US$676m of funding for early works and procurement.

As a result, capacity expansion to 333m tonnes a year (Mta) will now be reached in the first half of 2015, six months earlier than planned. It is being achieved through upgrades and other works at Dampier and Cape Lambert B.

The US$676m (Rio Tinto share US$350m) will be used to bring forward engineering work for the longest lead-time components of port and rail infrastructure, without increasing the overall cost of the expansion programme.