Work to bring the Pilbara’s largest known undeveloped iron ore deposit to life has begun, with a Rio Tinto-led consortium to spend $294 million to stand the project up.
Work to bring the Pilbara’s largest known undeveloped iron ore deposit to life has begun, with a Rio Tinto-led consortium spending $294 million to stand the project up.
Rio Tinto and its joint venture partners in the $20-billion Rhodes Ridge project on Tuesday morning green-lit a feasibility study into the first phase of the mine, which could initially produce up to 50 million tonnes of iron ore per year.
Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Matthew Holcz said the miner would work in partnership with the Nyiyaparli traditional owners of the region.
“We are working to develop Rhodes Ridge, which, given its size and quality, has the potential to underpin Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore business for decades to come,” he said.
“Earlier this year the joint venture welcomed Mitsui into the project, confirming Rhodes Ridge as one of the best undeveloped iron deposits in the world.
“We’re excited to keep working with all our partners as we progress the feasibility study.”
On top of the $294m feasibility study, Rio, Mitsui and AMB Holdings intend to splash $225m on exploration at Rhodes Ridge over the next two years.
Japanese company Mitsui bought a 40 per cent stake in the project this year off the Wright and Bennett families in a bumper $8.4bn deal which was finalised on Tuesday.
The deal propelled Angela Bennett’s fortune to nearly $8bn, placing her family fifth on the Rich 100.
Wright heirs Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burt gained about $2.5bn each from the sale.
The Bennetts retained a stake in Rhodes Ridge, while the Wrights sold their entire stake.
Rhodes Ridge is the fourth largest project in the pipeline for Western Australia, according to Data&Insights, behind only Woodside Energy’s Browse Basin and two mega-renewable energy projects which remain far from certainties.
It is also crucial to the future of the Pilbara and Rio Tinto’s longevity in the region.
At full scale Rhodes Ridge is expected to produce some 100mpta, making it 40mt larger than Rio’s recently commissioned half of the Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea.
Rhodes Ridge has a 6.8bn-tonne resource, 5.3bn of which has an average grade of 62.2 per cent iron ore.
That is enough ore to keep the mine near Newman operational until 2100 at its full nameplate capacity.
Rio expects to be churning out up to 360mtpa from its Pilbara operations in the next decade, about 30mt above the miner’s current output.
Studies into Rhodes Ridge’s viability are expected to wrap up in 2029, ahead of an anticipated production date in 2030.
In July, Rio undertook to lay out an 80-year roadmap of its development intentions in the Pilbara to smooth out the approvals process.
