Iron ore mining in Western Australia
The iron ore mining in Western Australia is an important economic factor for Australia. In Western Australia, the second largest deposits of iron ore is on Earth and 2010/2011 98 % of all Australian iron ore were produced in Western Australia.
The degradation is dominated by the two mining companies Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton, which produced more than 90% of all Australian iron ores in the accounting period 2008/2009. The third largest active group there is the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG ).
After China Australia in 2010 was the world's second largest iron ore producer, with the largest share of the Australian iron ore exports was shipped to China. With a share of 72% of the Australian Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale dominate the seaborne trade in iron ore.
This export of natural resources, a strong dependence of government revenues on the global economy is given because of the sale of the iron ore produced in Western Australia AUD realized 1.7 billion.
- 4.1 Active Mines
- 4.2 Displacement and Employees ( 2000-2010 )
- 6.1 General
- 6.2 Aboriginal
Iron ore deposits
About 5 % of the Earth's crust consist of iron and 95 % of all metals which are utilized economically, made of iron.
The world's total iron ore deposits, including Australia, amounted to 168 billion tons, of which there are 26 billion tons on the Australian continent. This is in a worldwide comparison, a share of 16.7 %; only Ukraine has a greater incidence of 17.9 %, while Russia's share at 14.9%, China's share is 13.1 % and the lies of Brazil at 9.5 %.
China is currently building from the largest volume of iron ore, followed by Australia, Brazil and India.
The iron ore deposits in Western Australia consist of either Pisoiden, which are small round individual grains, which are scents from iron ore belts and were transported to Schwemmlandgebiete, as Pannawonica or is it by metasomatism weathered iron ore bands like Newman, the Chichester Range and Hamersley Range and Koolyanobbing. Furthermore, there are at Lake Argyle oxidized iron, which is shaped like hard hats, and is taken from the local laterite deposits.
In the accounting period 2008/2009, the Australian iron ore production rose compared to the previous accounting period by 8.5% to 316 million tonnes, which corresponds to a value of A $ 33.56 billion. China bought 64 % of the iron ore exported from Australia for AUD 21 billion, Japan 21%, South Korea 10%, Taiwan 3%, and Europe 1%.
Australia produced 2000 169 million tons of iron ore and 2009, more than double the capacity of 394 million tons.
History
The early British explorer of Western Australia reported iron ore deposits of the Hamersley Ranges and described Koolyanobbing in the Yilgarn in the Pilbara as " Essentially an iron country" ( German: " a potential ore - land").
Iron ore was first smelted in Australia in 1848 in Mittagong, New South Wales, which was found in a local reservoir. However, the first iron ore mining in Australia took place in the Middle Ranges in 1833 in Iron Knob.
Larger deposits in 1887 at Savange River in Tasmania, discovered in Constance Ranges and Mount Biggenden in Queensland, in Nowa Nowa in Victoria and 1956 at Frances Creek, also in 1961 at Mount Bundey in the Northern Territory
1938 imposed the Commonwealth, because of the impending war, an embargo on the export of iron ore. 1957 discovered the prospector Stan Hilditch a large iron ore deposits at Mount Whaleback in Western Australia, which developed after the end of the embargo in 1960, the largest iron ore mine and is operated in an open pit mining. In the vicinity of the mine and the town of Newman, a railway line was built connecting the mine with the 426 km distant Port Hedland. The railway can transport 16,000 tons in an hour.
After 1960, a large export-dependent industry, which also resulted from the fact that in 1961 more Koolanooka deposits were explored in the Yilgarn region and 1962 at Mount Tom Price in the Pilbara region in 1962 developed. 1966 iron ore cargoes were first shipped from the region and explored further deposits in the subsequent period and developed.
Mining companies
More than 90 % of Australian iron ore mining takes place in the Pilbara, Kimberley region and in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The value of Australian iron ore production corresponded to 2008/2009 47% of the state budget of Western Australia.
The extraction of iron ore from Australia's Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Dominates is connected in a web of interests among themselves and with Chinese and Japanese companies through joint ventures.
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is one of the largest mining companies in the world and not only in the iron ore mining active. Rio Tinto plans to invest up to 2015 AUD 15 Billion in its 13 mines in the Pilbara region and increase the output of iron ore to 353 million tonnes. It will invest in its port facilities at Dampier and Cape Lambert, mines and railways. Should be expanded mines Brockman 4 Mine, Western Turner Syncline Mine, Marandoo mine and mine Nammuldi 1, and further encourages the exploration of deposits.
Rio Tinto holds 100 % of shares of the Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, which owns 53 % of the Robe River Mining Company Pty Ltd and is 50-50 at the Rio Tinto Iron Ore and Hope Downs Iron Ore Mine ( HDIO ) is BHP Billiton involved.
The Hamersley Iron is the owner of six mines to Western Australia, the Brockman, Marandoo, Mount Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Yandicoogina and Nammuldi mine. Hamersley Iron holds 60% of the Channar mine with the China Iron & Steel Industry and Trade Group and 54 % at the Eastern Range mine, a joint venture with Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation. 2009 Rio Tinto began the construction of two more mines, the Western Turner Syncline and the Brockman 4
BHP Billiton
The mining group BHP Billiton is the longest- occupied with the iron mining company in Australia. BHP Billiton was merged from 1899 to 2000 with the Minden Mining mine which is then bought by Onesteel Ltd..
BHP Billiton is the addition of seven iron ore mines to the owner, including the largest single mine in the mining of iron ore in open pits, the Mount Whaleback mine at Newman. This mine is five kilometers long and nearly 1.5 km wide. More ore body of the BHP Billiton with the numbers 18, 23, 25, 29, 30 and 35 and referred to the mines Jimblebar, Yandi, Area C and Yarrie. The Robe River Mine works with the Pannawonica Mine and West Angelas mine together. The Rio Tinto Iron Ore is connected to the Hope Downs Iron Ore mine in a joint venture.
In the financial year 2010/2011 BHP Billiton employed 13,000 people in the Pilbara region. From their base in Newman from the iron ore shipments will be coordinated with the railroad and the shipment of the loading stations in Port Hedland.
On February 2, 2012 BHP Billiton was known that it plans an investment project in Port Hedland to U.S. $ 917 million with construction to begin in the fourth - quarter of 2012. The internal portion of BHP U.S. $ amount to 779 million, the other units are provided by the Japanese companies Itochu Minerals & Energy of Australia Pty Ltd, Mitsui - Itochu Iron Pty Ltd and Mitsui Iron Ore Corporation Pty Ltd. The investment project envisages expansion of the annual Schiffsverladekapazität to 100 million tonnes of iron ore with completion in the first half of 2016. Will be built a new loading port having a four kilometer long ship jetty, ship channel, a new railway line and port buildings.
Fortescue
The mining company Fortescue was founded in 2003 and is by his own admission the fourth largest iron ore producer in the world and supplies mainly China and the Asian region.
2006 projected Fortescue its shipping facilities in the Herb Elliott Port at Port Hedland, railway facilities and iron ore mining. Two years later, the distribution of iron ore began. The Cloudbreak mine was their first mine, which she took in operation, the Christmas Creek Mine followed and the Solomon project in the Pilbara region sees the Iron ore mining in three other mines before. 2011 sold Fortescu 40 million tons of iron ore and for 2013/2014 is a volume of 150 million planned. By December 2012, the Solomon project investment of AUD 8.4 billion to be completed.
Fortescue employs 20 people in Perth, Port Hedland, Roebourne and Tom Price, maintain contact with numerous representatives of the Aboriginal people with whom the company works. The company stated that it takes into account the rights, culture and interests of Aboriginal people in their projects. Fortescue, lays claims to a high value on the employment of Aboriginal and employed 300 Indigenous employees in 2011.
88,000 km ² of land ownership in the Pilbarar region of Fortescue makes this company so that the owner of a world- significant iron ore deposit of 2 billion tons.
Mines, employment and delivery
Active Mines
Since 1966, three iron ore mines, the mine Goldsworthy, Shay Gap mine and Nimingarra mine in Western Australia was abandoned.
List of active iron ore mines to - Western Australia:
Delivery and Employees ( 2000 to 2010 )
Infrastructure
Since the extraction of iron ore for export from 1960, ten new towns, four new railway lines and 5 ports in Western Australia were built, including the port of Dampier with the largest tonnage of all Australian ports.
Fortescue is land owner over an area of 88,000 km ², which corresponds to twice the size of Switzerland, Rio Tinto over 11,000 km ² and BHP Billiton over 7,000 km ².
On the railway lines from the mines trains with two locomotives with 240 wagons with a length of 2.5 km, which can be loaded with 30,000 tons of iron ore, which were in 2008 as the longest trains in the world. FMG wanted to use the existing railway lines to transport, this was her denied by BHP Billiton due to the existing legal situation, then she was forced next to an existing 268 -long railway line from BHP Billiton to build their own route to Port Hedland, which is about 100 km parallel to the existing is running.
BHP Billiton iron ore transported 2010 to the Goldsworthy Railway and Mount Newman Railway to Port Hedland, Rio Tinto Hamersley & Robe River Railway to Cape Lambert and Dampier and FMG began its transport 2008 with its own railway company Fortescue Railway to Port Hedland.
Since the construction of two parallel lines is a waste of resources, arranged in June 2010, the Australian Competition Tribunal that Fortescue access to Rio Tinto 's Robe River Line and BHP Billiton 's Goldsworthy line is enable and the government passed this law. However, the Fortescue was the access to the faster lines of Hamersley and Mount Newman denied.
The use of smaller mines or intend the former state railways to use for their transport: for example, the mine of Koolyanobbing to the port of Esperance, Jack Hills and Karara to Geraldton Port, Karara also to the Oakajee port.
Criticism
Generally
The infrastructure of Western Australia is largely determined by the extraction of iron ore. Critics note: The impact of iron ore mining in Australia will be discussed in the local and global public in its effects little, the information policy of the iron ore producing companies consider only their economic interests.
Since non-resident workers commute by air from home to work at intervals of two weeks, was a building structure with hotels and hostels that are not promoted an urban development and can increase the price of land. Most mining companies can be covered by the Australian labor market specialized staffing needs hardly, so many forces are adjusted from abroad especially in mining of Western Australia.
For reduction of iron ore and the construction of operating the mines an infrastructure to transport the iron ore was necessary that changed the landscape and from a tourist point of view is questionable.
The Pilbara region is structurally politically dominated by iron ore mining and is thus economically totally dependent on the local mining companies and the global economy as well as the main buyer of iron ore in China. So drove the three major Australian iron Bergwerksunternhmen during the financial crisis from 2007 in 2008 their production output at times by 10% and also included individual mines.
The growth of employment is not keeping pace with the expansion of iron ore mining, as the mechanization and automation in this industry is high and is further processed and therefore the value added and employment not in Australia but abroad.
Aboriginal
The culture and the local Aboriginal Dreamtime is deeply connected to their land and water. The iron ore mining has an impact on the delicate desert-like environment of the Pilbara and on their ceremonial and traditional courts.
Some Aboriginal people recognize that corporations achieve high short-term profits, and that their financial success and employment opportunities in contradiction to the destruction of their habitats are. Large impact not only includes the change in the nature by breaking down also for the water budget because the mines found in the scarce water from the environment and the underground. Positive will be seen that the iron ore companies employment opportunities for local Aboriginal people have created in a structurally weak area. To promote the employment, there are introduced by the Government Aboriginal Workforce Development Center.
Since 1992, Aboriginal people have traditional country property claimed as Native Title and einklagt. Are the mineral rights affected by the mining companies have to negotiate with the owners. The Aborigines of the Yindjibarndi hold a native title over an area in which Fortescue wants to build three mines with an annual capacity of 60 million tons of iron ore. The trial of Fortescue and Yindhibarbdi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC ), which represents 700 members, came in 2010 due to different financial presentation to no final results, so that it may come to a judicial decision.
A run of Aboriginal company with 300 employees, the Ngarda Civil Mining Company has completed 2007 with the BHP Billington, a 5 -year contract to degrade in the Yarrie Iron Ore Mine, 200 km northeast Port Headland with the sum of AUD 300 million.
2007, the rate of Aboriginal unemployment in Western Australia at 14 %, while the local general unemployment was 3.3%.
In 2009, BHP Billiton 700 Aboriginal people among its 12,000 employees in the Pilbara region and announced that it had most Aborigines in the iron ore production in Western Australia. Rio Tinto explained that as 700 ( 6%) workers there were indigenous.