Rinehart’s Hancock weighs $3.3 billion iron ore mine project
Hancock acquired a 51% interest in the Mt Bevan project from Legacy Iron Ore Ltd. and Hawthorn Resources.
Mining Weekly reports mining giant BHP Billiton unveiled plans on Wednesday to increase its iron-ore production in the Pilbara region – the heart of Australia’s iron ore mining – to 450 million tonnes a year by adding infrastructure and building new mines.
BHP’s current iron-ore production capacity is 155 million tonnes a year in the Pilbara, while rival Rio Tinto’s capacity is 225 million tonnes a year. Rio Tinto announced a fortnight ago that it wants to grow output to 333 million tonnes by 2015.
Mining Weekly reports BHP estimated that its production target of 350-million tonnes a year could be reached by 2020, with no official date given for the 450-million-ton-a-year target.
The Age reported earlier in September Rio Tinto will spend $833 million on power and fuel infrastructure under plans to increase iron ore production in the region by 50% to 333 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by the first half of 2015.
