The Christmas Creek mine is an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 61 km south-south-west of Nullagine, in the Chichester Range.MINEDEX website: Christmas Creek search result accessed: 6 November 2010
Operator The mine is fully owned and operated by the Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and is one of the two iron ore mines that are part of the Chichester Hub operation; the other is Cloud Break mine, located 50 km west of Christmas Creek.
The other FMG mining hubs in the Pilbara are the Solomon Hub 60 km north of Tom Price and 120 km to the west of the Chichester Hub, and the Western Hub, which includes the Eliwana operation.
Fortescue is the third-largest iron ore mining company in the Pilbara, behind Rio Tinto and BHP.Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistic Digest 2009 Department of Mines & Petroleum, accessed: 8 November 2010
History
FMG acquired the Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek tenements during 2003. The company began constructing port facilities at Port Hedland in February 2006, followed by a A$3.2 billion capital raising in August 2006 to finance its projects. Construction on the Cloud Break mine began in October 2006Work begins on Cloud Break mine ABC News, published: 24 October 2006, accessed: 9 November 2010 and Fortescue began mining at Cloud Break in October 2007.History Fortescue Metals Group, accessed: 9 November 2010 Iron ore production at the mine began in 2008 and, in its first full year of operation the mine produced 28 million tonnes of iron ore.Mining Fortescue Metals Group, accessed: 9 November 2010
Processing and transport The ore from the mine is processed on site. Initially, it was loaded onto trucks and transported to Cloudbreak and then on to the coast at Port Hedland through the Fortescue railway, where it is loaded onto ships. Construction on a 280 km long railway from Cloudbreak to the Herb Elliott Port at Point Hedland was begun in November 2006. The line was scheduled to be fully operational within 18 months. A cyclone in March 2007 killed two workers at the project and led to delays. The first train from the mine to the port travelled on 5 April 2008.Fortescue opens the world's heaviest haul railway Railway Gazette International, published: 14 July 2008, accessed: 6 November 2010 A 44 km railway linking Christmas Creek to Cloudbreak, allowing ore to be taken all the way to the port by rail, opened in December 2010; further improvements to railways are planned.Christmas Creek Rail Extension NRW Holdings Electricity to the mine and Cloudbreak is supplied by a local power station, being expanded with a 60 MW solar farm and grid connection to Newman, and performs grid services.
The Pinnacles in Christmas Creek is an Australian Aboriginal sacred site in the area. There is a long history of struggle for land rights in the region.
The mine's workforce is on a fly-in fly-out roster.Sucked in The Australian, published: 4 April 2008, accessed: 9 November 2010
Originally, FMG planned to increase the production at Cloudbreak to 55 million tonnes through a US$220 million upgrade of the plant, but this had to be abandoned in October 2009 because of funding difficulties through its Chinese investors. Instead, Fortescue decided to develop the Christmas Creek deposit, at a cost of US$360 million, by building a mine and process plant there and linking it to its existing rail network. Christmas Creek is scheduled to produce 16 million tonnes of iron ore in its first year of operation. Fortescue plans to reach an annual production of 95 million tonnes of iron ore by 2012, downgraded from an earlier target of 120 million."Fortescue Metals Group's China funding flops" The Australian, published: 13 October 2010, accessed: 9 November 2010
The Christmas Creek operation began transporting ore by truck to Cloudbreak for processing in June 2009. Construction on the processing facility began in November 2009 and is expected to be completed within 13 month.Fortescue to spend $360m at Christmas Creek mine to up output The Australian, published: 112 October 2009, accessed: 9 November 2010Fortescue shares up on FY profit jump Sydney Morning Herald, published: 26 August 2010, accessed: 9 November 2010 Commissioning of the new ore processing facility at Christmas Creek is scheduled to begin in February 2011.Ore dip fails to slow Fortescue progress The Age, published: 15 October 2010, accessed: 9 November 2010
On 14 August 2013, an electrician was killed at the Christmas Creek mine when he sustained fatal crush injuries. Worker dies at FMG's Christmas Creek iron ore minesite News.com.au, published: 15 August 2013, accessed: 16 August 2013 A second fatality occurred on 29 December 2013 when a contractor was killed in the heavy vehicle workshop at the mine.Fatality at Fortescue's Christmas Creek mine The Australian, published: 30 December 2013, accessed: 31 December 2013
Extension In 2015 the Public Environmental Review for the Christmas Creek Iron Ore Mine expansion was made public, and extensive parts of the review relate to issues of mining adjacent to the Fortescue marshes.
References
External links MINEDEX website: East Pilbara Iron Ore / FMG Database of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety