ORE MILESTONE 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

A crew of long-serving staff to Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, will gather in the Pilbara on Wednesday for a soiree to celebrate 10 years since Roy Hill shipped first ore.

At an event that included her daughter Ginia, the WA billionaire farewelled first tonnes of iron ore from the Pilbara mine in December 2015 after a swift two-year construction period and at a cost of about $US10 billion.

Mrs Rinehart is set to say in a speech that the team at times thought Roy Hill “might not happen” but “persevered through the onerous burden of thousands of government approvals and permits, endless regulatory hoops (and) layers of government tape.” Since then, more than 500 million tonnes have been shipped from the operation, which now falls under the broader Hancock Iron Ore banner following a merger with Atlas Iron this year.

It’s expected international owners of the project will also be at the Hancock-hosted event, when awards will be dished out to long-serving employees and veterans who work for the company.

“To our staff who have made this possible, one of the best things for me about our mining project is that I know this has helped you to pay off your mortgages, and let you choose to do many things from home improvements, private education for your children, trips overseas, new car, pay for your wedding, honeymoon, help with baby and children expenses and more, because the mining industry on average, pays higher wages than any other industry,” Mrs Rinehart will say.

The debt funding secured to finance the project involved five export credit agencies and 19 international commercial banks, and is believed to be the largest commercial deal struck between Australia and South Korea.

“The massive debt funding package — the largest ever project financing package for the development of a land-based part greenfield project — was achieved in the nick of time, given the equity funding had almost run out,” Mrs Rinehart will say.