LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Mining giant Rio Tinto (RTNTF.PK, RIO, RIO.L, RTPPF.PK) on Thursday underlined its iron ore expansion plans, saying it sees growth.
'At current estimates, we have options to expand to a global annual capacity approaching 450 million tonnes by 2016, when Canada and our new project in Guinea are added in,' the company said.
The company's Pilbara nameplate capacity is 230 million tonnes per annum or mt/a and is expected to expand to 283 mt/a by 2013. The company plans additional expansion to 353 mt/a by the first half of 2015.
The company has 14 operating mines in the Pilbara feeding three port terminals, linked by more than 1,500 kilometres of rail. This is a fully integrated system which runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The miner also intends to hire thousands of people over the next two years in the Pilbara, taking its workforce there to more than 15,000.
The miner added that the plan it produces in 10 or 20 years from now will obviously see much further. 'We don't look to the future and see a steel-starved world. We see growth,' it added.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
