Rio Tinto in Australia - PageSuite

Rio Tinto in AustraliaThe businesses2012Iron OreRio Tinto is the second largest producer of iron ore in the world,and most of our production is in Australia. Our operations inWestern Australia’s Pilbara region are fast becoming one of thelargest integrated mining projects in Australian history.Our Pilbara trains take theequivalent of eight returntrips to the moon each year.48In the Pilbara, our 14 mines, threeport terminals and 1400km railnetwork are integrated in a waythat allows us to respond rapidlyto changes in demand.We have significantly expandedour Western Australian operationsduring the past 10 years. Todayour Pilbara trains haul around630,000 tonnes of iron ore fromour mines to our ports eachday – travelling close to 6.5 millionkm a year; the equivalent to eightreturn trips to the moon.We propose to expand our Pilbarairon ore capacity by more than50 per cent during the next fewyears, to 353 million tonnesannually by 2015.Dampier SaltRio Tinto is the world’s largestsalt exporter. Our majority-ownedsubsidiary, Dampier Salt Limited,is part of our Iron Ore group.Dampier Salt produces more thansix million tonnes of salt a yearat three locations in WesternAustralia: Dampier, Port Hedlandand Lake MacLeod.The most abundant source ofsalt is the ocean, but it can alsobe produced from undergroundbrines or from solid salt geologicalformations. At our Dampier and PortHedland operations, salt is producedby evaporation of seawater usingenergy from the sun and assistedby the wind.At Lake MacLeod we produce saltfrom underground brines that are10 times more concentrated thanseawater. At Lake MacLeod we alsomine gypsum, which is commonlyused in plaster board.Rio Tinto MarineRio Tinto Marine transports about150 million tonnes of seabornecargo to markets around the worldevery year. Given the vast quantitiesof iron ore we export, Rio Tinto IronOre also oversees our marinedivision, which owns and chartersships to transport our products.Our shipping professionalsmanage all aspects of the supplychain, including vessel selection,operational safety, scheduling, portefficiency and cost management.