Brockman No 4 Iron Ore Mine

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The Brockman 4 mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 60 kilometres north-west of Tom Price. The mine, located near the existing Brockman mine, is scheduled to open in 2010. The outline includes the whole deposit and the mines: Brockman No 4, No 3, No 4 "M"-"N"-"O" mines. The mine is fully-owned and operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore and will be one of thirteen iron ore mines the company operates in the Pilbara.

The Hamersley Range, where the mine is located, is, with 80% of all identified iron ore reserves in Australia, one of the major iron ore provinces in the world.

Iron ore mines in the Pilbara region.Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara began in 1966. Rio Tinto's new Brockman 4 is located near the existing Brockman 2 mine. The mine, at a cost of US$1.520 billion, is initially scheduled to produce 22 million tonnes annually, with a later doubeling of capacity to achieve Rio Tinto's plan of raising iron ore production from the Pilbara from 220 million tonnes annually to 330 million.

The ore body is approximately 15km long and up to 3 km wide, comprising the hills to the south of the Boolgeeda Creek Valley. Mining incorporates a fleet of fifteen Komatsu 830E haul trucks. The ore is processed on site in the plant to produce lump (<31.5mm, >6mm) and fines (<6mm) product. There is a primary Jaw Crusher, two secondary cone crushers, a six bin screening building and a 1.2 Million tonne capacity stockyard. Stockpiled ore is loaded onto rail and then transported to the coast through the Hamersley & Robe River railway, where it is loaded onto ships.

The mines workforce is on a Fly-in fly-out roster.

The mine is owned by Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a fully-owned subsidery of Rio Tinto, which already ownes six operational mines in the Pilbara, and partly-ownes two more mines in the region. Brockman 4 will be the company's seventh fully-owened mine.

Brockman 4 has an estimated mine live of 20 years. It officially opened on 2 September 2010. Rio Tinto allocated a further A$1.24 billion in early December 2010, to expand the mine as well as develop its Western Turner Syncline project, with the aim of increasing the Pilbara production to 283 million tonnes per annum by late 2013. The expansion would make B4 Rio Tinto's second-largest mine in the Pilbara.

Reference for information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockman_4_mine

Reference for location:
maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&x=117.27905396517&y=-22.5927795...