Engineering company Monadelphous has secured a major construction contract worth A$108m ($76.8m) for the BHP’s South Flank Projection the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

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BHP’s iron ore operations in Western Australia (Credit: BHP)

The contract includes structural, mechanical, piping and electrical and instrumentation works associated with the project’s outflow infrastructure. Work at the project is expected to start immediately, and be completed by May 2021.

Monadelphous Managing Director Rob Velletri said that the contract demonstrated the strength of the company’s long-term relationship with BHP.

Velletri said: “BHP has been one of our core customers, for both construction and maintenance projects, for more than 20 years. We are looking forward to partnering with them on this strategically important project, and continuing to build on our proven construction capability within the iron ore sector in the Pilbara.

“Monadelphous continues to provide a broad range of community support initiatives throughout the Pilbara, including offering local employment and supply opportunities”.

Once started, the work at the project is expected to provide approximately 400 people with employment opportunities.

In July 2018, the Anglo-Australian mining firm BHP had announced the start of construction at its A$4.88bn ($3.4bn) South Flank iron ore project.

The South Flank project is intended to completely replace production from the 80 million tons per annum (Mtpa) Yandi iron ore mine, which started production in 1991 and is nearing the end of its economic life.

Expected to have production life over 25 years, the South Flank project is slated to commence first ore extraction in 2021. It will expand the already established infrastructure at Mining Area C.

Additionally, the project is expected to create about 2,500 jobs during the construction phase and more than 600 jobs once operations begin.

BHP owns 85% interest in the Mining Area C and South Flank project while Itochu Minerals and Energy of Australia and Mitsui Iron Ore together hold the remaining 15% stake.

In June 2018, the company said that its board had given the go ahead to a capital expenditure of $2.9bn for the South Flank project.