Rio Tinto blames ghost bats in decision to pull Giles mini deposit from Pilbara expansion

Rio Tinto will can plans for a new iron ore deposit in the Pilbara as part of its Rhodes Ridge expansion in a move it claims will help save a habitat of ghost bats and reduce demand on Traditional Owners.

The Rhodes Ridge joint venture — held 50:50 with Wright Prospecting — lodged an amendment to the proposal with the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water in August to remove the proposed Giles mining deposit from its plans.

The site for the proposed open pit deposit sits at the southern most boundaries of Rio’s Rhodes Ridge expansion, which Rio says is one of the world’s best undeveloped iron ore discoveries, about 40km north-west of Newman.

“The area of the Giles Mini deposit contains one of two ghost bat sub-populations, referred to as the ‘southern sub-population’, with the ‘northern sub-population’ located at Rhodes Ridge main,” the joint venture said in its amendment.

“In the first instance, removal of Giles Mini from the proposed action avoids all direct impacts to the southern sub-population through retaining two adits and 10 caves, which provide roosting habitat, and retains surrounding foraging habitat.”

In all the scale of the operation — which will now only comprise the main Rhodes Ridge and Arrowhead deposits — will be reduced 22 per cent in size from 61,301ha to 47,923ha.

The ghost bat is listed as a vulnerable species. A map Rio provided as part of the environmental documents indicate there are also ghost bat populations in the main Rhodes Ridge deposit, which the company still intends to develop.

Removing Giles Mini from the equation means Rio’s development envelope also no longer intersects with an undetermined native title area of the Ngarlawangga People.

“Removal of the Giles Mini deposit and associated infrastructure reduces resource demands on Traditional Owners,” the miner said in the application.

“As a result of the amendment, reference to the Ngarlawangga Traditional Owner Group will be removed as the proposed variation will result in a revised development envelope which no longer intersects with the native title determination area.”

Rio is planning to spend more than $400 million on exploration over five years from 2024 to 2028 as part of studies for Rhodes Ridge, which would have annual capacity of 100 million tonnes of iron ore at full output.

Pre-feasibility studies for Rhodes Ridge are due to be completed in 2025. Environmental applications for the site are running in parallel, with documents filed with the State Government in February. The mine could potentially be producing by the end of the decade.

Rio is not the only miner scaling back Pilbara plans on account of environmental concerns. Hancock Prospecting last week dialled back iron ore processing rates from 20 million tonnes a year to 12mtpa at its proposed Mulga Downs mine and reduced the operation’s scale by 48.5 per cent.

The calls to reduce the size of expansions also comes amid a volatile period for iron ore prices with demand for the steelmaking ingredient suffering amid a years-long property crisis China.

Prices for the commodity fell under $US90/t in September, a price point not seen since 2022, but then bounced back as high as $US110/t on the news China would be rolling out stimulus to try and curb homebuying in an effort to reduce a supply glut.

Iron ore futures in Singapore were $106.60 at about 10am local time on Monday.