$600m McPhee Creek iron ore mine given the green light for development
Gina Rinehart's Atlas Iron has secured the final approval from the Federal Government for the development of a new iron ore mine in Western Australia.
The McPhee Creek iron ore mine is located about 100 kilometres north of the Roy Hill Mine and 30 kilometres north of Nullagine. The mine sits on the lands of the Nyamal People, with ore to be transported through the lands of the Palyku People.
The $600 million project is expected to bring 800 new jobs to the Pilbara region, including 500 jobs during the construction of the mine and up to 300 permanent jobs once the mine is up and running.
“The McPhee project has a very small footprint, only 1.5 per cent of Australia’s current iron ore exports, and will use existing processing, rail and port infrastructure.
“Yet it was referred for a long approval process in early 2021 and has experienced a multitude of challenges from changes to heritage legislation, and changes to federal environment guidelines.
“Our staff, Mrs Rinehart and I are very pleased that after long and sustained dialogues at all levels we have achieved this important milestone,” Hancock Prospecting Chief Executive of Projects Sanjiv Manchanda said.
The McPhee Creek iron ore project has been granted the final Part V works approval under the Environmental Protection Act 1986.
The McPhee Creek project has an estimated mine life of 15 years, and it is expected to have a production rate between 9.5 to 9.7 million tonnes of iron ore annually.
Primary crushed ore will be hauled via road train from the McPhee Creek mine to Roy Hill for processing. The processed iron ore will then be transported to the port for shipping.
Mineral Resources’ CSI Services will be supplying and operating a 10-million-tonne-per-year primary crushing plant, which will be fed by Atlas Iron via dump trucks or front-end loaders. The product will be stockpiled for reclaim and haulage by Atlas Iron as well.
Source: Australian Mining; Atlas Iron (1, 2); Hancock Prospecting; Mining.com; HanRoy (1, 2)
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