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This list of iron ore mines in Australia is subsidiary to the list of mines article and lists working, defunct and planned mines in the country organised by state.
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This list of iron ore mines in Australia is subsidiary to the list of mines article and lists working, defunct and planned mines in the country organised by state.
| Mine | Alternative names | Majority Owner | Status | 1st Production Year | Output (mtpa)! |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area C mine | Mining Area C (MAC Mine) | BHP [1] | Producing | 2001 | 55 |
| Balmoral South | Australasian Resources | Deposit | - | 0 | |
| Brockman 4 mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 2010 | 22 | |
| Brockman 2 mine | Brockman mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 1992 | 8.7 |
| Channar mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 20 | ||
| Christmas Creek mine | Fortescue Metals Group | Producing | 50 | ||
| Cloud Break mine | Fortescue Metals Group | Producing | 40 | ||
| Cockatoo Island | Pluton Resources (under administration) [2] | Not producing | 0 | ||
| Eastern Ridge mine | Orebody 23/25, Newman East | BHP | |||
| Hope Downs mine | Rio Tinto / Hancock Prospecting [3] | Producing | |||
| Iron Valley mine | Mineral Resources Ltd [4] | Producing | 6 | ||
| Jimblebar mine | Orebody 18 mine | BHP | Producing | 2013 [5] | |
| Karara mine | Karara Mining | Producing | 2013 [6] | 8 | |
| Marandoo mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 1994 | 15 | |
| Mesa A mine | Waramboo mine, Mesa J mine (part of Mesa A) | Rio Tinto [7] | Producing | 1992 | |
| Mt Tom Price mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 1966 | 28 | |
| Mt. Whaleback mine | BHP | Producing | 1968 | ||
| Nammuldi mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 2006 | 6.6 | |
| Paraburdoo mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 1972 | 20 | |
| Pardoo mine | Atlas Iron Ltd | Producing | 2008 | 2.4 | |
| Roy Hill | Hancock Prospecting [8] | Producing | 2014 | ||
| Shay Gap | Mount Goldsworthy Mining Associates | Closed in 1993 | 1973 | ||
| Solomon hub mine | Fortescue Metals Group [9] | Producing | 2013 | 72 | |
| South Flank mine | BHP [10] | Under construction in 2020 | |||
| West Angelas mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 2002 | 35 | |
| Wodgina mine | Atlas Iron Ltd | Exhausted in 2017 | 2010 | 0 | |
| Yandicoogina mine | Rio Tinto | Producing | 1998 | 52 | |
| Yandi mine | BHP | Producing | 1991 | 79 | |
| Yarrie mine | Goldsworthy | BHP | Suspended in 2014 | 1993 | 0 |
| Mine | Alternative names | Majority Owner | Status | 1st Production Year | Output (mtpa) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koolyanobbing, Western Australia | Cliffs Natural Resources Limited | ||||
| Mt. Jackson | Cliffs Natural Resources Limited | ||||
| Yilgarn Iron Producers Association |
| Mine | Alternative names | Majority Owner | Status | 1st Production Year | Year ceased | Output (mtpa) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extension Hill/Iron Hill | Mount Gibson Iron | Reworking stockpiles | 2011 | 2019 | ||
| Karara mine | Karara Mining | Producing | 2013 [6] | - | 8 | |
| Tallering Peak | Mount Gibson Iron | Closed | 2003 | 2014 | 0 |
BHP, officially named BHP Group Limited and formerly known as BHP Billiton, is an Australian multinational mining and metals public company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
Whyalla is a city in South Australia. It was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta is one of the three towns to make up the Iron Triangle. As of June 2018, Whyalla had an urban population of 21,742, having declined at an average annual rate of -0.75% year-over-year over the preceding five years. It is a seaport located on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula and is known as the "Steel City" due to its integrated steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. The port of Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903.
The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north.
Iron Knob is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula immediately south of the Eyre Highway. At the 2006 census, Iron Knob and the surrounding area had a population of 199. The town obtained its name from its proximity to large deposits of iron ore, most notably Iron Monarch which outcropped prominently from the relatively flat, surrounding landscape.
Cockatoo Island is an island in the Buccaneer Archipelago off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby. It was mined for iron ore by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company from 1951 until 1984. Koolan Island is a neighbouring island that was also mined by BHP for high grade iron ore. It was most recently mined by Perth-based mining company, Pluton Resources until the company was placed under administration in September 2015.
Koolan Island is an island off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia in the Buccaneer Archipelago. It is about 1,900 km north of Perth, and about 130 km (81 mi) north of Derby. It hosts deposits of high-grade iron ore.
Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group.
Port Bonython is the location of a deepwater port, gas fractionation plant and diesel storage facility west of Point Lowly in the Upper Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. It lies 16 km east-northeast of Whyalla, South Australia and approximately 370 km north-west of the State's capital city, Adelaide. The existing wharf is 2.4 kilometres long and is capable of berthing small Capesize ships with a maximum capacity of 110,000 tonnes. The wharf was established in 1982 and named after John Bonython, the founding chairman of Santos. The structure is leased to Santos by the Government of South Australia and is used for the export of hydrocarbon products. An oil spill at Port Bonython in 1992 resulted in loss of bird life and damage to mangrove habitats to the west and southwest of Port Pirie.
The Goldsworthy railway, owned and operated by BHP, is a private rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia built to carry iron ore. It is one of two railway lines BHP operates in the Pilbara, the other being the Mount Newman railway.
The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different grades. It occupies a 1,000 ha site on the shore of False Bay, Spencer Gulf and is the largest employer in Whyalla, South Australia.
Iron ore mining in Western Australia, in the 2018–19 financial year, accounted for 54 percent of the total value of the state's resource production, with a value of A$78.2 billion. The overall value of the minerals and petroleum industry in Western Australia was A$145 billion in 2018–19, a 26 percent increase on the previous financial year.
The Area C mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 92 kilometres west-north-west of Newman.
The Jimblebar mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 41 kilometres east of Newman.
The Yandi mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 90 kilometres north-west of Newman. It should not be confused with Rio Tinto's nearby Yandicoogina mine, which is also sometimes shortened to Yandi.
The Orebodies 18, 23 and 25 mine, part of BHP's Eastern Ridge hub and officially referred to as the Newman East operation, is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 8 kilometres east of Newman. The mine is majority-owned and operated by BHP, and is one of seven iron ore mines the company operates in the Pilbara. The company also operates two port facilities at Port Hedland, Nelson Point and Finucane Island, and over 1,000 kilometres of rail in the Pilbara.
The South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation founded in 1979. It represents approximately 130 companies involved in resource extraction and supporting service industries in South Australia.
Save Point Lowly is a community action group based in Whyalla, South Australia. The group was formed circa 2008 to present an alternative vision for the future of the Point Lowly area north-west of Whyalla and resist plans for heavy industrialization. The group aspired to raising the profile of the Point Lowly area, including the giant Australian cuttlefish aggregation, which the group believes is under threat from a number of industrial proposals including: a seawater desalination plant for BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine, a diesel distribution hub, a technical ammonium nitrate plant and an iron ore export facility. Collectively these development have been referred to by the Government of South Australia as the Port Bonython Minerals Precinct. The group's spokesperson and chairman is Andrew Melville-Smith who is a practising veterinarian and resident of Whyalla.
The Middleback Range is a mountain range on the eastern side of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Middleback Range has been a source of iron ore for over a century, particularly to feed the Whyalla Steelworks. Mines in the region were first developed by BHP from the 1890s and are now owned and operated by Liberty House Group.
Cu-River Mining Pty. Ltd. is a privately-owned Australian resources company with interests in iron ore mining and port development projects in South Australia. It is the smaller of two iron ore exporters operating in the state, the larger being the GFG Alliance. The company is owned by Adelaide-based businessman, Yong Gang Shan and as of 2019 its only producing asset was the Cairn Hill mine in the state's Far North. The company has contracted mining, processing and freight logistics services to Agile Mining Services and Lucas Total Contract Solutions
The BHP Whyalla Tramway is a 1067 mm gauge heavy-haul railway, 112 kilometres long, on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It runs from haematite mines at Iron Monarch, Iron Baron and Iron Duke in the Middleback Range, about 50 kilometres west of Whyalla, to company steelworks at the coastal city of Whyalla. Opened in 1901, it was built by, and until 2000 operated by, BHP. As of 2021 it was owned by Liberty Steel Group and operated on its behalf by rail operator One Rail Australia, which was sold in 2022 to Aurizon.