Some very interesting reading about the location, history and surrounding mines of winmars hamersley iron project. The more I research about winmars location in the pilbra, it's resource and grade, it's cornerstone Chinese investor the more I get excited about this stock. I am very happy holding and accumulating long term on this winner.
A bit of info for you jats about your concern regarding location to national park. There's no problem what so ever. I'm still of the opinion winmar will exercise their 100% buy out option and execute jv to mine and utilize existing infrastructure. (just my opinion on my own research) will run hard soon.....
Rio Tinto's wholly owned Hamersley Iron is one of the world's largest iron ore producers. From mines in the iron-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia it is a major supplier to the Pacific rim and European steel industries from Hamersley's Mount Tom Price, Channar, Paraburdoo, Marandoo, Brockman and Yandicoogina mines. Hamersley has a system capacity approaching 74 million tonnes per year, making it one of the world's largest exporters of iron ore which is transported from the mines to the port of Dampier on the north-west coast of Australia, on a 630 kilometre dedicated railway. High-tech locomotives with advanced on-board computers enable one-man operation of some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world. From Dampier, ore is shipped under medium and long term supply contracts with major integrated steel mill customers to Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and Europe. Hamersley employs approximately 2,000 people.
Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara began in 1966. The mine itself began operations in 1994. The mine has an annual production capacity of 15 million tonnes of iron ore, sourced from open-pit operations. The ore is processed on site before being loaded onto rail.
Ore from the mine is then transported to the coast through the Hamersley & Robe River railway, where it is loaded onto ships. Ore from Marandoo, like Brockman, Mount Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Channar, Eastern Range and Yandicoogina are transported as lump and fines ore product from the mines to Dampier via rail. Before being loaded onto ships for export, the product is blended and rescreened. The maximum size for the lumps is 31.5 mm, while the fines are at a maximum of 6.3 mm.
Marandoo opened in October 1994 and was, at the time, the showpiece mine in regards to best practice design for Hamerley Iron.
The mines workforce is on a Fly-in fly-out roster, having originally been based residential, until the town became too small for the workforce. In the calendar year 2009, the mine employed 355 people, an increase in comparison to 2008, when it only employed 250.
The mine can be seen from Mount Bruce, the second-highest mountain in Western Australia, located within the Karijini National Park.
The mine is owned by Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, which owns six mines in the Pilbara, including Marandoo, and partly owns two more mines in the region.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marandoo_mine)
WFE Price at posting:
7.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
