Tue, Mar22 13:49:04
SYDNEY, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Global miner Rio Tinto Ltd said on Tuesday its first-quarter iron ore production in Western Australia 's Pilbara region would highlight the impact of the tropical cyclones in February.
Speaking at a conference in Perth on Tuesday, Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Sam Walsh said, "We have only just regained momentum and our quarterly production report will highlight the impact."
Rio Tinto's current Pilbara capacity is 225 million tons a year and it is moving to expand output to 333 million tons a year by the end of 2015.
"We do not expect our expansion to stop at 333," Walsh said.
He told reporters that tight equipment supply from Japan after the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami has affected on the miners' expansion efforts in terms of cost.
He said the company's Canadian iron ore operations were also expanding quickly to meet demand which was already heightened before the Japanese crisis.
Walsh said the magnitude of reconstruction in Japan was only just being realized.
"It is true to say that recovering, developing and developed economies continue to drive demand for iron ore," he said.
The company's Simandou iron ore mine project in Guinea in West Africa would be developed before the official target date of 2015, Walsh said.
"We are keen to produce tons earlier if infrastructure constraints can be removed," he said.
Editor: Xiong Tong
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