Rio invests $131m in Pilbara mining town makeover

Residents of Pannawonica, a mining town located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, are to benefit from a $300 million makeover.

The town was established in 1970 and has a population of around 1,000.

It is owned by Rio Tinto subsidiary, Robe River Mining, and is the last remaining closed mining town in the Pilbara, with Rio Tinto providing all infrastructure, housing and services.

Rio will be spending around $131 million on the project, which involves the refurbishment of 238 houses, the construction of 10 new houses and development of the airstrip for jet services.

The upgrade is linked to the group’s development of the Mesa A/Warramboo iron-ore mine in the Robe Valley.

The mine, which lies around 50 kilometres from Pannawonica, is currently under construction and will have an initial production rate of 20 million tonnes per annum increasing to 25 million tonnes by 2011.

In November of last year, Rio committed $901 million to develop the Mesa A/Warramboo mine.

It is one of several projects the group has under development in the Pilbara, where it wants to increase iron ore production capacity to 320 million tonnes a year by 2012.