Rio spending $2.2bn on iron-ore supply – by Esmarie Swanepoel (MiningWeekly.com – June 18, 2018)

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Rio Tinto on Monday revealed that it will be spending some $2.2-billion over the next three years on replacement mines for its iron-ore operations in the Pilbara, including initial spending on the proposed Koodaideri, West Angelas and Robe Valley developments.

Rio’s iron-ore CEO Chris Salisbury told investors and analysts that the company’s strategy was to optimise its Pilbara assets to deliver value for shareholders.

“Our iron-ore business delivered $7.3-billion of free cash flow in 2017 and we will continue to maximise free cash flow by pursuing a value-over-volume approach, built on a portfolio of world-class assets that deliver our premium iron ore product, the Pilbara Blend.

“We are driving productivity improvements right across the business and we continue to leverage considerable value from innovation and new technology. Our pioneering autonomous rail project, AutoHaul, is on schedule to be implemented by the end of the year, and is already delivering benefits to the business through an uplift in rail capacity.”

Salisbury said that removing the bottleneck in the company’s rail operations and increasing flexibility remained a key priority for Rio.

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