On July 29, Australian miner BHP Billiton announced that the partners in Samancor Manganese, which is 60 percent owned by BHP Billiton, have approved the second expansion of the GEMCO operation in Australia's Northern Territory.
With this US$279 million project of which BHP will provide 60 percent, the capacity of GEMCO, the world's largest manganese ore producer, will increase to 4.8 million mt per year, up from 4.2 million mt per year. The project is expected to be completed in late 2013.
The expansion will also include road and port capacity expansions to 5.9 million mt per year.