Rio Tinto ready to build Simandou after almost 30 years of setbacks
Simandou has faced delays due to legal disputes, political changes, and the challenges of building a 600 km rail and port infrastructure.
The Australian reports Tim Netscher took over as chief executive of Gindalbie Metals in April, having joined the board last September. His predecessor stepped down from the role after the miner in March announced a second cost blowout at its West Australian Karara magnetite joint venture. At the time, Netscher, 60, was working for Newmont Mining, the world’s largest gold producer, and thinking about swapping executive roles for non-executive positions, but the Gindalbie offer was too good to refuse.
The multilingual boss, who speaks Afrikaans, Indonesian, German, Spanish and English, knows that Gindalbie’s Karara magnetite project, 200km east of Geraldton, is at a crucial stage of development, but the mining industry veteran is not shy about a challenge.
The Australian quotes Netscher:
The company is a small company that is developing an enormous project. It’s a BHP Billiton-Rio Tinto size project being run by a small company with a very knowledgeable and supportive Chinese partner (Ansteel).
