The expansion plan is to further the production from the mines by 70 million ton per year, in order to raise the total production to 360 million tonnes annually by 2015.
Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh told institutional investors that the company would seek board’s approval for the expansion plans during the latter half of the year, according to two anonymous sources.
The expansion plan is in line with company’s previous plan announced earlier in February 2013 to expand the production from mines in Pilbara region to 290 million tons per year by the third quarter of 2013. It planned for further increase in production to 360 million tons in the first half of 2015.
One of the sources claimed that the management is likely to assess the market before taking up any decision.
"There would have to be a major structural change in the iron ore market or a black swan event for Rio not to push ahead with this project," noted another source.
