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REGIONAL NEWS - AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA Fortescue Sees Solomon Hub at Capacity by Year-end When both of its major production hubs—Solomon and Chichester—reach design capacity in 2014, Fortescue Metals Group will reach its long-term goal of an operating rate of 155 million mt/y iron ore. Fortescue Metals expects to have the two iron ore mines, Firetail and Kings, at its Solomon Hub in Western Australia operating at combined design capacity of 60 million metric tons per year (mt/y) of iron ore by year-end 2013. The mines are separated by a distance of 5 km. Associated infrastructure includes two ore processing facilities, crushing hubs, 15 km of overland conveyors, and a stockyard and train loadout facility. Fortescue formally opened the 20 million mt/y Firetail mine in early May. In late June, the company announced that it had awarded the mining contract for the Kings deposit to Leighton Contractors, with expectations that the mine would reach its design capacity of 40 million mt/y by yearend 2013. Fortescue's Solomon Hub is located 60 km north of Tom Price, Western Australia, and 120 km west of Fortescue's Chichester Hub, which is ramping up during 2013 to its targeted capacity of 95 million mt/y from the Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mines. With both Chichester and Solomon at design capacity in 2014, Fortescue will have achieved its long-held goal of an operating rate of 155 million mt/y of iron ore production, and it will be able to blend ore from the two hubs into an enhanced product called the new "Fortescue Blend." Leighton Contractors is mining the Firetail deposit under a five-year, A$1.516 E&MJ; • AUGUST 2013 billion contract for "whole-of-mine" management. The Firetail contract was varied to include the Kings mine, with the variation valued at an additional A$1.3 billion. The full scope of Leighton's Solomon Hub contract now includes operating and maintaining the open-cut mining fleets, mine planning, ore quality control, ore processing facilities, and associated infrastructure, such as the airport and village. Mining at Firetail began in 2012, with ancillary in-pit crushing used to produce ore and commissioning feed for the processing and train load-out facilities. Fortescue dispatched the first trainload of Firetail iron ore in early December 2012, as it opened a new, 130-km rail link from the Solomon Hub to its existing mainline railway from the Chichester Hub to Herb Elliot Port. Atlas Iron Developing Mount Webber Mine Atlas Iron is proceeding with development of the Mount Webber iron ore project 230 km via road south-southeast of Port Hedland, Western Australia. The direct shipping ore project spans property owned by Atlas (70%) and Altura Mining (30%), and an adjoining northern tenement owned 100% by Atlas. Mount Webber mining operations are scheduled to begin before year-end 2013, with first ore shipments from the second quarter of 2014. The initial production rate will be 3 million mt/y, and initial mine life is estimated at 18 years. Atlas is targeting a second stage of development that would increase production to 6 million mt/y. Capital cost to develop the project is estimated at A$146 million and is fully funded by cash on hand. Mount Webber ore initially will be trucked to the Utah Point Port; however, the mine's production could also comprise part of any future rail agreement. Atlas Managing Director Ken Brinsden said, "Mount Webber provides us with high-quality, long-life production that will enable us to reach our targeted 12-million-mt/y production rate by the June quarter of 2014. With our Pardoo, Wodgina, and Mount Dove mines in operation, Abydos due to commence soon, and now Mount Webber being developed, Atlas will have delivered five mines in around five years." The final decision to mine Mount Webber remained subject to Atlas board approval, regulatory approvals, and the completion of the production joint venture agreement with Altura Mining. TriAusMin Receives Development Approval TriAusMin Ltd. announced on July 10 that it received final project approvals from the New South Wales Department of Planning and Infrastructure for its Woodlawn retreatment and underground projects. The projects are located at the site of the former Woodlawn mine, which was operated, first as an open-pit and then as an underground mine, from 1978 to 1998. During that time, the mine produced 13.8 million mt of ore grading 9.1% zinc, 3.6% lead, 1.6% copper, 74 g/mt silver, and 0.52 g/mt gold. TriAusMin's project involves retreatment of more than 10 million mt of tailings that were deposited in three dams at the Woodlawn mine. The underground mine project is targeting an initial mine life of eight years at a production rate of 300,000 to 400,000 mt/y. The Woodlawn site is located near Tarago, New South Wales, about 200 km southwest of Sydney. www.e-mj.com