Koolyanobbing

The Koolyanobbing iron ore mining operation is located 420 kilometres north east of Perth and 54 kilometres north of Southern Cross in the heart of the highly mineralised Western Australian Goldfields. The Koolyanobbing Mine is actually a series of open cut mines owned by Cliffs Natural Resources that rail their product to the port at Esperance from where it is exported to its Asian customers, after it is crushed and screened at the mine site. A recent expansion program has raised annual production to 11 million tonnes.

Koolyanobbing was Originally Operated by BHP
Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) originally mined iron ore at Koolyanobbing between 1967 and 1983, through its subsidiary, Dampier Mining Company Limited. During this period the ore was used to supply Australian Iron and Steel's (another BHP subsidiary) blast furnace at Kwinana, south of Perth. When the Kwinana blast furnace was closed in 1982 iron ore mining at Koolyanobbing was suspended.

The Koolyanobbing Mine now Owned by Cliffs Asia Pacific Iron Ore Pty Ltd
The current operation taking place at the Koolyanobbing Mine began in 1993 under the ownership of Portman Limited. The mine came under the ownership of American company, Cliffs Natural Resources, through its subsidiary, Cliffs Asia Pacific Iron Ore Pty Ltd, in 2008, as a result of a Cliffs-Asia take over of Portman Limited. The ore is now railed to the port at Esperance for exporting to Asian steel makers. The mine produces goethite and haematite ores.

From 1994 to 1995 the Koolyanobbing operation produced 714,025 tonnes of iron ore. The Portsman Limited 2007 annual report showed the mine has an iron ore resource of 32.9 million tonnes grading at 61.61 percent iron.

BGC Wins Contract to Operate the Koolyanobbing Mine
Mining contractor BGC were awarded the contract to operate the Koolyanobbing mining complex in September 2007 after successfully supplying haulage requirements at the site since early 2004. The BGC contract involves taking responsibility for all drilling, blasting, loading and haulage at an annual rate of 26 million tonnes bcm (bank cubic metres) of ore and waste from the Mount Jackson, Windarling and Koolyanobbing pits and any future Deception regions. Ore mined from these the areas that are removed from the Koolyanobbing mine site itself is transported about 100 kilometres to the run of mine (ROM) stockpile located at the Koolyanobbing mine site. The ore is then crushed and screened before it is loaded onto railway wagons to be transported to Esperance along the transcontinental railway line and the Leonora to Esperance standard gauge railway line.

Exploration at Koolyanobbing Began in the 1950's
BHP began exploring for iron ore deposits in the Koolyanobbing area in the 1950's. The present mine was established in 1967. A town site was established at Koolyanobbing by BHP in the 1960's to house the mine workers. The operation, after re-opening, was expanded in 2004 with the inclusion of the Mt Jackson and Windaring open cuts. This allowed the blending of high grade ore from the two new operations with the lower grade ore from the Koolyanobbing open cut., therefore making it able to meet market requirements. The ore currently being mined from the three open cut operations is all haematite ore.
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