On December 18, Australian largest mining company Rio Tinto announced the awarding of a major new mining contract in its Pilbara iron ore operations to a joint venture (JV) between indigenous title holders the Eastern Guruma people and mining services company NRW Holdings Ltd.
The contract worth $200 million to build, mine and transport iron ore from Rio Tinto's Western Turner Syncline deposit is the first significant mining joint venture for the Eastern Guruma people, and continues the comprehensive Rio Tinto commitment to indigenous contracting in the Pilbara region, Rio Tinto states in its release.
In addition, the four-year contract has been designed to increase Eastern Guruma equity in the joint venture from 25 to 35 percent as the group builds capacity in mining services. Mandated employment levels will rise each year giving an average of 27 percent Aboriginal employment across the four-year contract. It also includes a $6 million component specifically for training the Eastern Guruma to develop stand-alone proficiency.
According to Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Sam Walsh, "This is a great initiative. It enables a local Aboriginal contractor as part of the joint venture to develop and mine the Western Turner Syncline deposit, and this is also important for us as Western Turner Syncline will provide high-grade iron ore which will be processed and blended using existing infrastructure in Tom Price and, together with upgrades of rail and port capacity, will support an increase in our production capacity in the Pilbara to 230 million mt a year."