THE ACQUISITION by Rio Tinto of a stake in the Hope Downs iron ore project, announced on July 1, has cleared the way for construction of a rail link to the mine.
Hope Downs is due to start producing ore in 2008, and the promoting joint venture of Hancock Prospecting and South Africa's Kumba Resources had sought rights to use Rio Tinto's line to Dampier or the BHP Billiton iron ore railway to Port Hedland. When these were rejected, Hancock looked at building its own line or sharing that planned by Fortescue Metals (RG 9.03 p538).
Having bought Kumba's 50% stake in the Hope Downs joint venture, Rio Tinto has agreed with Hancock to build a 50 km connection from the mine to the Hamersley line, to be known as the Lang Hancock Railway after the company's founder. This is expected to handle up to 30 million tonnes a year. Rio Tinto is already investing A$1·5bn to increase capacity on its Hamersley and Robe River lines from 127 to 170 million tonnes a year, including port improvements at both Dampier and Cape Lambert.
