[ferro-alloys.com]Rio Tinto is unable to supply some of its iron ore customers after a fire last Thursday damaged parts of its Cape Lambert export facility.

A Rio spokesman said the mining giant had declared force majeure on customers impacted by damage to a section of the Robe River screen facility that separates Robe Valley lump and fine products.

He said the fire had not affected shipping of other iron ore products.

Robe Valley produced 31.2 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017.

“Rio Tinto is assessing the full impact of the damage and will do all it can to try and minimise disruption to our customers,” he said.

Robe Valley and West Angelas are owned by the Robe River joint venture of Rio Tinto (53 per cent), Mitsui (33 per cent) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (14 per cent).

In October the venture agreed to spend $US1.55 billion ($2.16 billion) to sustain production at the two operations.

(The West Australian)

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