Paraburdoo

The Greater Paraburdoo open cut iron ore mining operation in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia is owned and operated by Rio Tinto through its wholly owned subsidiary Rio Tinto Iron Ore.

Greater Paraburdoo Mine Produces 22.5 Million Tonnes of Iron Ore Annually
Greater Paraburdoo includes the Eastern Range, Channer and Paraburdoo
open cut mining operations that produce 22.5 million tonnes of Pilbara Blend iron ore a year. Iron ore production began at Paraburdoo in 1972 with the ore being exported out of the port at Dampier. Most of the workforce employed at the mine live in the town of Paraburdoo although 22 percent are fly in fly out workers. The mine has a fleet of 27 haulage trucks and six loading units. The ore is transported to Dampier along Rio Tinto's 1,400 kilometre long private railway system. It is the largest privately owned railway system in Australia that links the 14 Rio Tinto mines operating in the Pilbara to the coastal ports at either Dampier or Cape Lambert.

Paraburdoo is Part of the World Renown Iron Ore Rich Hamersley Range
The Paraburdoo Mine is located about 80 kilometres south of the mining centre of Tom Price. It is within the iron ore rich Hamersley Range that is renown for having around 80 percent of Australia's identified iron ore reserves making it one of the world's most important iron ore regions.

Paraburdoo Ore is Blended With Other Pilbara Ores to Produce the Pilbara Blend
Mining at the Greater Paraburdoo mines takes place extracting ore from the Brockman bedded iron ore deposit. Paraburdoo ore is processed on site before it is loaded onto railway trucks and transported along the Hamersley and Robe River Railway that take it to the coast. When unloaded at the port it undergoes blending and screening before being loaded onto ships for exporting to overseas customers. The Paraburdoo ore lumps and fines are blended with ores mined from other Rio Tinto mines that make up the Rio Tinto Pilbara Blend. Maximum fines size is kept at 6.3mm and lumps at no more than 31.5mm. Rio Tinto is currently undertaking a massive expansion program at its Pilbara iron ore mines with the aim of producing a total of shipping capacity 333 million tonnes annually by 2015.

Rail Access Roads Around Paraburdoo are Strictly Controlled
Rio Tinto's rail access roads are all owned by the company and were originally constructed to allow maintenance access to the railway that takes inland mined ore to the coast. The roads are all gravel roads and run parallel to the railway network. The roads are strictly controlled and permits must be obtained before vehicles are allowed on them.

Many Workers Choose to fly in and fly out to Work at Paraburdoo
As many of the workforce employed at the Paraburdoo Mine are fly in fly out mine workers, direct flights are provided to Paraburdoo from Perth, Meekatharra, Geraldton, Exmouth, Derby, Carnarvon, Busselton, Broome and Albany.

Paraburdoo to Benefit From Rio Tinto 'Mine of the Future' Program
The Paraburdoo Mine is also benefiting from the Rio Tinto 'Mine of the Future' program that was launched in 2008. The program is based on eventually having most mining operations being controlled from the Rio Tinto Perth office. This centre is state-of-art that enables all the company's mines, railway systems and ports to be operated from the one city location. It incorporates collaboration and visualisation tools that provide real-time information across the whole demand chain.
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