Rio Tinto today officially opened its Silvergrass iron ore mine in Western Australia.

The US$338 million project is the 16th mine at Rio Tinto’s world-class iron ore operations and will produce low-phosphorous ore crucial to maintaining Rio Tinto’s premium Pilbara Blend product.

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said:

“Silvergrass is a great example of our value-over-volume approach in action as the mine will deliver the high-quality, low-cost ore used to maintain the world-class premium Pilbara Blend product our customers love so much.

Silvergrass is a further demonstration of our long-standing commitment to the Pilbara region in Western Australia where we’ve invested more than US$20 billion over the past decade.”

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan today led the formalities at a ceremony in the Pilbara to mark the opening, with full commissioning scheduled before the end of the year.

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