Dec. 06, 2017 - Rio Tinto next year will seek board approval to develop an “intelligent” iron ore mine at a cost of USD 2.2 billion, fully incorporating technologies such as robotics and driverless trains and trucks on a single site. Mr. Chris Salisbury Chief Executive, Iron Ore said that feasibility study was underway to demonstrate the economics behind developing the Koodaideri mine in the Pilbara region of the state of Western Australia.
Rio Tinto extracts more than 300 million tonnes of ore annually in Australia, making it the world’s second-biggest iron ore miner after Brazilian giant Vale.
Mr. Salisbury said that “We will bring all our technologies into a single place with a mine that is purpose-built to adapt those technologies. We are calling it our intelligent mine.”
According to Salisbury The Koodaideri lode would produce around 40 million tonnes per year by 2021, but could be expanded to yield 70 million tonnes or more at a later date.
Mr. Salisbury said that the project fit into a strategy to produce ore tailored with iron content required by steel mill customers over simply mining as much as it can.
Iron ore accounted for more than two-thirds of Rio Tinto’s USD 6.064 billion in underlying earnings last year.
Rio Tinto recently ran its first autonomous iron ore train over a distance of almost 100 km (62 miles) as a part of its Autohaul project. It already runs much of its mining, transport and port logistics from an operations centre 1,500 km away in Perth.
Sainsbury also said that a shift in demand as China cleans up its steel industry will see cyclical premiums for higher-grade iron ore cemented as a permanent fixture in the market.