Pilbara Iron

Infobox Company
name = Pilbara Iron

type =
genre =
foundation = 2004
founder =
location_city = Perth, Western Australia
location_country = Australia
location =
origins = Partial operations merger of Hamersly Iron and Robe River
key_people =
area_served =
industry = Mining
products = Iron Ore
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 3850
parent = Rio Tinto
divisions =
subsid =
owner =
slogan =
homepage =http://www.pilbarairon.com/
dissolved =
footnotes =

Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assests for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio (53% and operator since 2000) and three Japanese steel companies Mitsui Iron Ore Development P/L (33%), Nippon Steel Australia P/L (10.5%) and Sumitomo Metal Australia P/L (3.5%) [ [http://www.roberiver.com/about/ Robe River | About Robe] accessed 1 October 2007] . They are involved in the mining of iron ore, predominantly from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In 2004, Rio Tinto announced that Robe and Hamersley would start merging operations under the new Pilbara Iron entity [ [http://pilbarairon.com/SiteContent/news/news_desc.asp?libraryID=209 Rio Tinto and Robe River progress on Pilbara cooperation] , 13 January 2004] . The concept had been tested by the formation of Pilbara Rail in 2001, which generated more than $16 million in savings. Pilbara Rail was folded into Pilbara Iron in 2005 [Citation
title = Farwell to Pilbara Rail
magazine = Minera
issue = 5
pages = pp 20-21
date = April 2005
publisher = Pilbara Iron
url = http://pilbarairon.com/documents/Minera%20Issue%205%20-%20Final.pdf
accessdate = 2007-10-01 ] . Each company continues to market products separately and retains ownership and profits from the underlying mines, as well as strategic development of their own mineral resources [ [http://pilbarairon.com/SiteContent/aboutus/aboutus.asp Pilbara Iron - About Us] accessed 1 October 2007] .

Current mine sites

Mine sites currently operating:
* Hope Downs (2007)
* Eastern Range (2004)
* Nammuldi (2003)
* West Angeles (2002)
* Yandicoogina (1998)
* Mesa J (1994)
* Marandoo (1994)
* Brockman (1992)
* Channar (1990)
* Paraburdoo (1972)
* Mount Tom Price (1966)

All iron ore mined at the sites is transported by one of the world's largest privately owned railroads to either the port of Dampier, Western Australia or Cape Lambert near Wickham, Western Australia. From there the ore is shipped across the world, with China and Japan the largest markets as of 2007 [ [http://www.pilbarairon.com/sd/our_business.asp Pilbara Operations : Our Business] ] . Demand continues to be strong, with price increases and new infrastructure to raise production predicted for the next few years. [Citation
last = Brown
first = Justin
title = Rio Tinto digs deep to pile on output
newspaper = Business Report
date = 2007-09-06
url = http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=4020271
accessdate = 2007-10-01 ] [ Citation
last1 = Ann
first1 = Tan Hwee
last2 = Yuan
first2 = Helen
title = Iron ore giants consider 30% price hike
newspaper = International Herald Tribune
date = 2007-09-28
url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/27/bloomberg/bxiron.php
accessdate = 2007-10-01 ]

Historical events

* May 1967 - Hamersly Holdings Limited shares on the ASX
* September 1973 - Hamersley Japan Limited incorporated
* May 1974 - Hamersley Europe Pty. Limited incorporated

References

Further reading

* Trengrove, Alan (1976) "Adventure in iron / Hamersley's First Decade" Melbourne, Stockwell Press. ISBN 0909316031 (Hamersley Chronology on end-pages)

ee also

* Pilbara historical timeline
* Pilbara newspapers