RIO Tinto says its rail car dumper at the Cape Lambert operation in the Pilbara has been damaged, resulting in the partial suspension of iron ore unloading activities.
According to the company, an on-site incident on 31 August 2008 damaged one of five dumpers. Damage assessment and repairs are in progress.
Rio Tinto has changed the rail and shipping schedules in an attempt to minimise capacity loss, and output losses are expected to be negligible.
Between 190m and 200m tonnes of iron ore from Pilbara flow through the Cape Lambert and Dampier ports. Rio is ramping up operations to enable the combined Pilbara operations to export 220m tonnes per year by the end of 2008.
