Marandoo

The Marandoo open cut iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia is located 45 kilometres from the mining town of Tom Price.

Marandoo Open Cut Began Production in 1994
The Marandoo Mine commenced production in 1994 and has its own iron ore processing facilities on site. It produces an average of 15 million tonnes or iron ore a year that is extracted from the Marra Mamba iron ore deposit. Both the fines and lump iron ore produced at the mine is blended with Rio Tinto's products from its other Pilbara operations.

Marandoo Mine Splits Karijini National Park Into North and South
The open cut mine is situated in the Hammersley Range along a narrow corridor that divides the Karijini National Park into southern and northern areas. The Hammersley Range contains 80 percent of identified iron ore reserves throughout all of Australia, making it one of the world's most important iron ore zones. Rio Tinto have twelve other iron ore open pits in the Pilbara Region along with the Marandoo mine.

Ore From Marandoo Mine Shipped out of Dampier
Iron ore mined at the Marandoo open pit is taken to the port at Dampier by rail along the Robe River Railway. At Dampier it is re-screened and blended before being loaded onto ships to take it the the company's overseas customers. Marandoo fines are kept to a maximum size of 6.3 mm and the lumps to 31.5 mm.

Workers Flown in and out to Complete Rosters
The 350-400 odd workers at the Marandoo Mine are flown into the mine to carry out their shifts and flown out again when finished. While at work they reside in company village accommodation. In 2011 Rio Tinto approved the expansion of the Marandoo open cut that will extend the life of mine to 2030. This extension has taken the mining of the ore body to below the water table. The surplus water will be used to irrigate Rio Tinto's agricultural project on Hamersley cattle station.

Mining Giant Becomes Pastoralist
The agricultural project on Hamersley Station is intended to increase cattle stocking rates in the region and relieve other areas that are under stress from grazing. The project has involved the installation of a sprinkler system covering 1,650 hectares and the water from the Marandoo open cut, mine that is feeding the sprinkler system, is growing 25,000 tonnes of hay annually. This hay is used to feed 25,000 head of cattle that Rio Tinto is raising across its six cattle stations in the Pilbara Region, these being; Yarraloola, Yalleen, Juna, Rocklea, Karratha and Hamersley. Excess production is sold to other pastoralists who request it.

Assets and Equipment at the Marandoo Mine Site
Assets and equipment used at the Marandoo open cut mine includes the following:
- A train load out facility
- A crushing and screening plant
- Three Cat 777F water trucks
- Loaders; two WA 250FEL, two Komatsu 1200 FEL, two Cat992G FEL
- Two cat 16M graders
- Excavators; one Liebherr 994, one Hitachi EX 2500, one Hitachi EX 2500 Face Shovel
- Sixteen Komatsu 730e haul trucks
- Drills; one Cubex OXR 920, two Reedrill SKSS 12 blast hole drills
- Dozers; one Cat 844 RTD wheel dozer, two Cat D11R track dozers
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