CANBERRA: Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s new Roy Hill iron ore mine will start exports sometime in October, compared with an initial deadline of the end of this month.
The operation in Western Australia’s iron-rich Pilbara region now has more than 19 million metric tons of high-grade ore stockpiles, Roy Hill Holdings Pty Chief Executive Officer Barry Fitzgerald told reporters in Qingdao, China, on Tuesday.
“We’re on target to increase mining capacity to 55 million tons in 15 months,” Fitzgerald said on the sidelines of the China International Steel & Raw Materials conference.
The addition of new iron ore supply from mines including Roy Hill will add to a global surplus of the steelmaking ingredient in 2016 and 2017, maintaining pressure on prices, according to CLSA Ltd. Iron ore has slumped 28 percent in the past year as the largest suppliers have continued to expand output amid faltering demand growth in China, the largest consumer.
Even as higher cost mines are shuttered, supply will increase by about 41 million tons next year and by 75 million tons in 2017 on output from Roy Hill, Anglo American Plc’s Minas-Rio in Brazil and other projects, CLSA analysts wrote in a Sept. 10 note to clients.
