Four decades of growth

摘要

It is most unlikely that anyone involved with the mining and export of -Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd's first 760,000 tonnes of iron ore back in 1966 could have imagined just how large the Pilbara operation would eventually become. From a single mine at Mt Tom Price, a 280 kilometre rail link (constructed in just 12 months) and a harbour in Dampier, the project has flourished into a fully contained mining empire, with 10 mines, three ports, five towns and 1,100 km of rail lines (in what is the world's largest privately-owned heavy haulage rail network that runs between three ports and seven operations throughout the region). Pilbara Iron Pty Ltd, which was formed in 2004 to manage and maintain the combined assets of Hamersley Iron and Robe River Iron Associates, currently exports around 145-150 million tonnes of product from Western Australia's north west. Following Tom Price, the company commissioned Paraburdoo (1972), Channar (1990), Brockman Number Two (1992), Marandoo (1994), Yandicoogina (1998), West Angelas (2002), Eastern Range (2004) and Nammuldi (2006).