The Brockman 4 mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, 60 kilometres north-west of Tom Price

Tom Price, Western Australia

Tom Price, situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, is an industrial town. The town is located inland, at the edge of the Hamersley Range...

. The mine, located near the existing Brockman mine

Brockman mine

The Brockman mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 60 kilometres north-west of Tom Price. It is sometimes also referred to as Brockman 2 mine to differentiate between it and Rio Tinto's new Brockman 4 mine project, also in the area.The mine is fully owned and...

, is scheduled to open in 2010.

The mine is fully owned and operated by Rio Tinto Iron Ore

Rio Tinto Group

The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...

 and will be one of thirteen iron ore mines the company operates in the Pilbara.

The Hamersley Range

Hamersley Range

The Hamersley Ranges is a mountainous region of the Pilbara, Western Australia. The range runs from the Fortescue River in the northeast, 460 km south. The range contains Western Australia's highest point, Mount Meharry, which reaches approximately AHD. There are many extensively-eroded...

, where the mine is located, is, with 80% of all identified iron ore reserves in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, one of the major iron ore provinces in the world.

Overview

Brockman 4 is located approximately 25 km south of the Brockman 2 mine. The mine, which cost US$1.520 billion to build, is initially scheduled to produce 22 million tonnes annually, with a doubling of capacity planned by 2012. This is to help achieve Rio Tinto's goal of raising iron ore production from the Pilbara from 220 million tonnes annually (as of 2010) to 330 million.

The ore body is approximately 15 km 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

Komatsu 830E

The Komatsu 830E is an ultra class dump truck used in open pit mining designed and built in Peoria, Illinois by Komatsu America Corporation, whose parent company is the Japanese held company Komatsu Ltd..The Komatsu 830E is notable for the rated capacity of ....

 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

Crusher

A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, or rock dust. Crushers may be used to reduce the size, or change the form, of waste materials so they can be more easily disposed of or recycled, or to reduce the size of a solid mix of raw materials , so that pieces...

, 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

Hamersley & Robe River railway

The Hamersley & Robe River railway, majority-owned and operated by the Rio Tinto Group, is a private rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for the purpose of carrying iron ore. The network is larger than any other Australian heavy freight rail network in private ownership. The...

, where it is loaded onto ships.

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

Fly-in fly-out

Fly-in fly-out is a method of employing people in remote areas. It is often abbreviated to FIFO when referring to employment status. This is common in large mining states in Australia...

 roster.

Brockman 4 has an estimated mine life of 20 years. It was officially opened on the 2nd of 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.

External links

• Rio Tinto Iron Ore website
• MINEDEX website Database of the Department of Mines and Petroleum
  Department of Mines and Petroleum
  The Department of Mines and Petroleum is a department of the Government of Western Australia. The department was formed on 1 January 2009, out of the former Department of Industry and Resources and Department of Consumer and Employment Protection, which were split into three new departments, the...