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Show TGS and Cleveland Cliffs Announce Go-Ahead on Australian Iron Project N NEW VOKK - H. Stuart. qVTioMl. president of The !V-iA.bnd-Cliffs Iron O'"-'rv O'"-'rv and Ourles F. Foir- , v 'pivsidont of Texas CuU" ' !' ju'-ilKir Company, aimoun-jvvi'iluil aimoun-jvvi'iluil final divumonts wore i'Ks partieip.uim; in th :W-miltion Kobe Kiver Iron ' )n Frojvt in Western Aus-' Aus-' iyd recently and that par-' par-' rjii;i ivt" agreed to proceevl aim'otlkUoly with develop-- develop-- (KMit of the mining venture. . preliminary cngitKvi'kp.j; ; btvn completed and thsi ' , ortjes will iw proceed with : ' onsfniotion of the project's lining, processing, pellet iz-. iz-. and shipping facilities. lie iwn orP reserves are lo-' lo-' in the Pilbara Region f the State of Western Aus tralia, about 100 miles south of Cape Lambert on the Indian In-dian Ocean. The Rube River Iron Ore Frojeeit is an international joint .venture composed of il'ni'.ed States. Australian and Japanese interests. The United States portion of 3D per cent of the project will be held by Cliffs Western Australian Mining Co. Pty. Ltd., who will also manage Hho projivU Cleveland:Clift's owns a majority interest in this company, and Texas Gulf owns 35 per cent, giving giv-ing Texas Gulf a 10.5 per cent interest in the total venture. ven-ture. Other United States investors in-vestors may have minority interests in-terests in Cliffs Western. The Australian portion is held by Role River Limited, which lias a 35 per cent interest in-terest in (he project and by ML Enid 1 i-on Co. Pty. Ltd., which has a 5 per cent in-erest. in-erest. Other major Australian Austral-ian commercial and industrial industri-al companies and the Australian Aus-tralian public will own shares in Robe River Limited Limi-ted ML Enid Iron Co. is a subsidiary of Gar-rick Agnew Ltd. The remaining 30 per cent of the- project is hold by Mitsui Iron Ore Development Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui & Co., Ltd. The Robe River Project is scheduled to make its first shipment in mid-1972, to reach an annual production rate of 8 mifion buns in 1973, and to produce over 10 million tons per year by 1975. Pelllets and fines aggregating aggre-gating .158 million tons are scheduled for delivery under long-term contract to six major ma-jor Japanese steel mills. Pelletizing is expected to yield uniform pellets of approximately ap-proximately 63 per cent iron content. Major phases of the project on which design work hns been underway for soma time include a port, an ore preparation and pelletizing plant, a power plant, two townsites. and a 104-mile railroad from Cape Lambert to the mine site. Cape Lambert, where the port for the project will be located, can be developed to accomodate vessels of up to 150 thousand tons. The port facilities at Capa Lambert will be designed to handle a throughput of 20 million tons annually. The ore can be mined at relativ-ly relativ-ly low cost since much of it occurs on the tops of the mesas with virtually no overburden. |