Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
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Rio Tinto has awarded an $A8.7M contract to engineering and construction contractor Decmil to design and build a laboratory at its Mesa A iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Decmil is set to begin on-site work in March 2021, with completion due in August.
Rio Tinto holds 53% as operator of the Robe River JV, comprising the Mesa A and Mesa J mines, alongside Mitsui Iron Ore Development 33% and Nippon Steel 14%.
(CORPORATE)
Continuing uproar over the destruction of priceless heritage sites by iron ore giant Rio Tinto underlines the growing pressure on mining companies to focus on their environmental, social and governance responsibilities.
Gold and silver-in-concentrates production from Turquoise Hill Resources’ 66%-owned Oyu Tolgoi Copper-Gold Project in Mongolia’s Southern Gobi has continued on the up with Sept 2020 qtr (Q3 20) gold rising to 37,000oz from Q2 20’s 31,000oz and silver to 219,000oz from 212,000oz, but copper easing to 36,300t from 36,500t.
Gold in concentrates sales followed the same trend to 34,000oz from 31,000oz, but copper was down to 34,400t from 39,700t, along with silver to 201,000oz from 220,000oz.
Catch-up work on maintenance programs deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed Sept qtr (Q3) iron ore shipments by global giant Rio Tinto, despite a strong return to full mining activity under normalised rosters and operating systems at its West Australian mines.
Rio says the significant works at its Pilbara ports limited Q3 total shipments to 82.1Mt, down from 83.2Mt in the June qtr.
Contracts awarded by Rio Tinto for its $US2.6B Koodaideri greenfields iron ore development in the Pilbara region of Western Australia:
West Australian engineering contractor Alltype Engineering has been awarded a $A6M structural, mechanical and piping package contract for Rio Tinto’s $US2.6B Koodaideri 43Mtpa first phase greenfields iron ore development in the Pilbara.
The contract awarded by Laing O’Rourke covers procurement, fabrication, surface protection, pre-assembly and modularisation facilities for the mine plant at Koodaideri, set to be Rio’s most technologically advanced mine.
(CORPORATE)
The departure of three senior managers over Rio Tinto’s legal but badly misjudged destruction of priceless heritage features to dig up more iron ore illustrates that maintaining relationships with stakeholders is becoming more important to major corporations than business performance.
Chief executive J-S Jacques and two fellow senior managers of Rio Tinto have suffered the penalty of being on the wrong side of public sentiment, resigning their positions with the global miner due to the uproar over the destruction of caves containing heritage sites in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Jacques will leave his position on March 31, 2021 or earlier once a successor is appointed.
Global giant Rio Tinto has told 51%-owned subsidiary Turquoise Hill Resources it won’t contribute more than a shared $US500M debt facility towards the costs of the increasingly expensive and delayed Oyu Tolgoi underground copper-gold mine development in Mongolia.
Rio manages the Gobi Desert openpit mine operation and underground mine construction for JV owners Turquoise Hill (66%) and Mongolian government (34%), but has resisted all calls for a major financial commitment to the underground development.
Rio Tinto executives J-S Jacques, Chris Salisbury and Simone Niven will take a $A7 M hit as a result of the global miner’s blasting destruction of a priceless heritage site to expand its Brockman 4 mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region in May.
Although the blasting of rock shelters in the Juukan gorge was legal, a board review says failures in the company’s systems, decision-making processes and governance resulted in the loss of artefacts relating to human habitation 46,000 years ago.