Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that it has installed a new shiploader with a nominal 55 million mt annual capacity on the new wharf at Cape Lambert in Pilbara, Western Australia.
Rio Tinto stated that the shiploader is a major component of infrastructure in its Pilbara expansion program, indicating that the company is progressing rapidly towards reaching its interim target of 290 million mt annual capacity for the Pilbara operations by the third quarter of the current year.
With the installation of the shiploader, all the major coastal infrastructure for the expansion program is now safely on site and in place. All approvals for the expansion to 290 million mt per year are in place, and all key rail and port approvals for the 360 million mt per year stage which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015 are completed.
Once all works have been completed the Cape Lambert port will have the largest export capacity of the three iron ore port assets owned by Rio Tinto.