Mining Australian Iron
The first shipment of iron ore from Australia’s Roy Hill iron mine was loaded onto a ship at Port Hedland in Western Australia on Dec. 6, and the ship departed from the port on Dec. 10. The shipment is a definitive proof that the Roy Hill Project is operational and ready to begin shipping out 55 million tons of iron annually.
The Roy Hill iron mine is located in the thinly-populated Pilbara region in the northern part of the state of West Australia. The iron mine is estimated to contain 2.3 billion tons of iron ore. Samsung C&T Corporation has built the railroad, port, and plant for the US$10 billion project. Hancock Prospecting owns 70 percent of the shares of the project, while POSCO from Korea, Marubeni from Japan and China Steel from Taiwan own the remaining 30 percent. Marubeni from Japan has a 15 percent stake, China Steel has a 2.5 percent stake, and POSCO has a 12.5 percent stake.
Choi Chi Hun, president of Samsung C&T Corporation, announced that 100,000 tons of iron ore from the Roy Hill mining site successfully made the trip to Port Hedland and the ship, which means that commercial operations of the mine are possible.
Samsung C&T Corporation has built the port in the way of open freight storage system that can handle 12,700 tons of ore per hour. The company has also built 347 km of railroad from the mine to the port, and a plant that can process 55 million tons of iron ore per year.
Samsung C&T Corporation finished this largest mining project in the world with 2,400 construction workers and 2,000 pieces of equipment.
The company is using this opportunity to expand its construction market in Australia while maintaining good relationships with prominent local construction corporations and giving Australia a good impression of its capabilities. Thanks to these efforts, they have become involved in the West Connect Project 1 and 2 consecutively, which are the largest traffic infrastructure projects in the country.