Pilbara Spotlight: way out west

As the mining boom continues to gain pace, few places are feeling the effects like Australia’s most productive region, the Pilbara, in Western Australia.

Located in North West Australia between the Kimberley and the Tropic of Capricorn, the Pilbara is made up of four local magnetite mining crusher government areas, the Shires of Ashburton, Roebourne and East Pilbara and the Town of Port Hedland.

The region’s mining industry continues to go from strength to strength, and is a huge contributor to its growth.

Nearly half of Western Australia’s exports come from the Pilbara region, as well as over 60 per cent of the state’s gross resource production and the region makes up 20 per cent of national merchandise, export taxes and royalties

The Pilbara prides itself on its “natural beauty”, which “encompasses both a tropical coastline and magnificent inland ranges where deep gorges and spectacular cliffs can be explored.”

“Much of the Pilbara is a sea of fiery red, gold and amazing brilliant blue skies followed by breathtaking sunsets,” according to the Pilbara Regional Council.

More to do and more to see in the Pilbara

The region has been embraced by mining companies, which are not only engaged in production to remove the vast resources in the region, but are also heavily involved in local communities and environment.

“With things like education, moves by the state government are terrific,” David Flanagan from Atlas iron told Australian Mining.

“I was only talking to people in Port Hedlands last week on the Pilbara development.

“It’s not well known but mining companies are working with government to help build recreational centres and build communities, so there’s a lot more happening than people are seeing.”

“The prospects of the place is amazing, so from a mining wealth perspective, it’s remarkable how unexplored it is and it has amazing potential.

“I love to look at the place, it is a great place to work, the terrain is beautiful, there’s a mining history and a whole bunch of great people.”

Dealing with Mother Nature's wrath

In recent months, the region has been slammed by Mother Nature, and is currently dealing with the effects of tropical cyclones Dianne and Carlos.

Iron ore operations in the Pilbara for Rio Tinto alone have an annual capacity of 220 million tonnes, with plans to increase capacity to 283 million tonnes by 2013.

The miner’s silica sand crusher Pilbara operations make up a major part of its iron ore operations globally and Rio has been continuing to expand their operations in the region for over forty years.

A statement from Rio Tinto said the weather conditions are likely to impact on tonnage for the first quarter of 2011, despite the best efforts to continue as many operations as possible.

“Despite ongoing challenges, operations have been maintained at all 14 mines across the region.

Dampier and Port Walcott (Cape Lambert) operations have continued intermittently since 14 February 2011, with frequent interruptions from the excessive rainfall, swells and winds. The reformed TC Carlos required the tie-down of all port operations from later today,” it said.

Previously in February, a mini-tornado damaged buildings and cars in Karratha during a 10-minute burst of destructive winds.

Residents reporting cars being thrown about, roofing iron ripped off, power lines brought down, fences smashed and other debris blown about, according to WA Today.

“The conditions led to a partial derailment late on 17 February, when a loaded train damaged a single-line section of track 35 kilometres south of Dampier.

"This has prevented trains from entering Dampier, and is not expected to be fully repaired until later this week,” Rio said.

The statement from the miner went on to say train movements to Port Walcott have remained unaffected by the derailment but are now suspended as part of the tie-down advance of TC Carlos.

Mining boom stretching infrastructure

The weather issues are not the only issues for the Pilbara region, as services struggle to keep up with demand as a result of the mining boom.

Flanagan said the problems in the region are probably the same experienced by other mining communities.

“You can’t just have resource boom and everything is fixed life,” he said.

“Things like growth in demand for mining resources is stretching social infrastructure, it can make a good place truly great with long term sustainable development.

“There’s a bit of list there but once you’ve got long term infrastructure, it is an achievable goal.”

He said as the region continues to grow, people should perlite crusher embrace new additions to the region which could further improve its economy and living conditions.

“I’d like to see more options for entertainment, restaurants, there might be some areas around port Hedland which would support houses and maybe a café strip.