Rio JV opens Baby Hope

Rio Tinto and Hancock Prospecting have today opened a new mining pit that will help sustain production volumes at their jointly owned Hope Downs operation in the Pilbara.

They have also approved an investment in greater automation of their haul trucks and production drills.

The new Baby Hope mining pit was understood to have cost less than $100 million to develop.

This is dwarfed by other iron ore investments, such as Rio's announcement this week that its Robe River joint venture had approved spending of $2.1 billion at two existing mine sites.

And in August, Rio approved $146 million of funding to undertake initial work at its Koodaideri iron ore project, ahead of a final investment decision on the $2.2 billion development.

Speaking at today’s opening, Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said the Baby Hope investment would ensure sustainable production levels at the Hope Downs 1 operation.

Regarding the move to driverless trucks, Rio said a total of 28 existing haul trucks at the Hope Downs 1 mine would be retrofitted with Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) technology by 2020.

Three production drills at the Hope Downs Four mine will also be retrofitted with Autonomous Drilling System (ADS) technology.

Rio said these changes would deliver safety benefits to both haulage and drilling operations, as well as productivity gains through a higher utilisation rate of the existing fleet.

Mr Salisbury said Rio would work closely with employees affected by the increased use of automation.

“To date, we have successfully redeployed or upskilled employees impacted by automation and we would expect this trend to continue with the extension of this technology at Hope Downs," he said.

Hancock Prospecting chairman Gina Rinehart thanked Rio for its investment.

"As Hancock and some at Rio know, I have been pushing to see the development of Baby Hope, and I am excited that now the Baby Hope mine will be a welcome contributor to the future success of Hope Downs,” Mrs Rinehart said.

Hancock Prospecting and Rio are equal partners in the Hope Downs joint venture.

Baby Hope is located about four kilometres south-west of the Hope Downs One South Deposit and immediately north of the Lang Hancock rail line.

Hope Downs One and Four produced 46.9 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017.