A railcar dumper at the Rio Tinto-owned East Intercourse Island (EII) port facility in Western Australia could be offline for up to a month following flooding from Tropical Cyclone Sean.
The dumper, which shipped 45 million tonnes of Rio iron ore last year, will require rectification works that may take three to four weeks, according to a report from Business Wire. Rio Tinto confirmed the report on its website this morning.
Tropical Cyclone Sean passed over the northern WA coast earlier this week, bringing a deluge of rain that broke Karratha’s almost 20-year rainfall record in a single day in a 270ml deluge.
Pilbara Ports briefly shuttered exports from Port Hedland as the cyclone passed by, with operations resuming on Monday.
Assessments of the damage to the EII dumper are ongoing as recovery works within the broader iron ore system progress.
While the major’s 2025 shipping guidance remains unchanged, first quarter shipments are expected to be impacted, with Rio working to mitigate the effects.
EII is an uninhabited island in the Dampier Archipelago in the Pilbara around 250 hectares in size.
The island is a major iron ore loading port owned and operated by Pilbara Iron, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium.
Rio Tinto is expected to release its full year results on February 19, where the extent of the impact to shipping figures will be revealed.
While Rio has been making major moves in the copper sector of late, its iron ore stronghold remains firm.
A number of Pilbara iron ore projects are progressing for the major, including the construction of its $1.3 million Western Range project and the soon-to-be-completed prefeasibility study for Rhodes Ridge, which is targeting an initial capacity of up to 40 million tonnes of iron ore per year from the east Pilbara.