Pilbara Iron

Pilbara Iron
IndustryMining
Founded2004
Headquarters
Perth, Western Australia
,
Australia
ProductsIron Ore
Number of employees
3850
ParentRio Tinto
Websitepilbarairon.com
Pilbara Iron train, Tom Price to Dampier Railway
Hamersley Iron Alco C628 locomotive at 7 Mile Yard, Dampier, Western Australia.

Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assets for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio (53% and operator since 2000) and three Japanese steel companies Mitsui Iron Ore Development P/L (33%), Nippon Steel Australia P/L (10.5%) and Sumitomo Metal Australia P/L (3.5%).[1]

All of these companies are involved in the mining of iron ore, predominantly from the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

In 2004, Rio Tinto announced that Robe and Hamersley would start merging operations under the new Pilbara Iron entity.[2] The concept had been tested by the formation of Pilbara Rail in 2001, which generated more than $16 million in savings. Pilbara Rail was folded into Pilbara Iron in 2005.[3] Each company continues to market products separately and retains ownership and profits from the underlying mines, as well as strategic development of their own mineral resources.[4]

  1. ^ Robe River | About Robe accessed 1 October 2007 [dead link]
  2. ^ Rio Tinto and Robe River progress on Pilbara cooperation, 13 January 2004 Archived August 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Farewell to Pilbara Rail" (PDF), Minera, no. 5, Pilbara Iron, pp. 20–21, April 2005, archived from the original (PDF) on 29 August 2007, retrieved 1 October 2007
  4. ^ Pilbara Iron – About Us accessed 1 October 2007 Archived May 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine