Rio Tinto, for the second time this year, is fast-tracking expansion of the Australian iron ore complex that generates most of the multinational mining company’s profits.
The FTSE 100 miner said it will invest $230m (£145m) to expand Dampier port at the terminus of its iron ore operations in Western Australia. Ore is loaded on supertanker-sized ships at this company port before making the lucrative journey to China and its steel mills.
Together with a mine expansion plan authorised earlier this year, the port expansion will boost annual iron ore production capacity from 220m to 230m tonnes by 2012, the London-based miner said on Friday. The company has a longer-term goal of 330m tonnes a year.