Rio Tinto reports three billion tonnes of additional iron ore Resources

7 February 2008

Rio Tinto has further strengthened its leading position in the Pilbara with a 3.0 billion tonne addition to its iron ore Resource base.

This came through the discovery of a major new Resource at Caliwingina, and significant improvement in confidence of resources associated with known deposits.

The chief executive of Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Sam Walsh, said significant technical and study work has led to increased confidence in Rio Tinto’s position in the Pilbara.

“Rio Tinto occupies the largest mineralisation and land position in the Pilbara, one of the world’s great iron ore producing regions. This advantage is strengthened by addition of the newly discovered Resource at Caliwingina, comprising 875 million tonnes of iron ore only 15 kilometres from our railway and only 150 km from our ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert, as well as significant additions around known deposits.”

Rio Tinto has further strengthened its leading position in the Pilbara with a 3.0 billion tonne addition to its iron ore Resource base.

This came through the discovery of a major new Resource at Caliwingina, and significant improvement in confidence of resources associated with known deposits.

The chief executive of Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Sam Walsh, said significant technical and study work has led to increased confidence in Rio Tinto’s position in the Pilbara.

“Rio Tinto occupies the largest mineralisation and land position in the Pilbara, one of the world’s great iron ore producing regions. This advantage is strengthened by addition of the newly discovered Resource at Caliwingina, comprising 875 million tonnes of iron ore only 15 kilometres from our railway and only 150 km from our ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert, as well as significant additions around known deposits.”

Mineral Resource Additions

1. Addition of Caliwingina
The newly discovered Caliwingina Resource is within the Mt Pyrton Project area which lies 100 km north northwest of Tom Price and is approximately 15 km from the Rio Tinto Iron Ore Tom Price to Dampier railway line.

The Resource is situated within the Late Archaean to Early Proterozoic (2765-2470 Ma) Hamersley Basin. The Lower Hamersley Group rocks within this area form rounded outcrops on the edge of the Fortescue River basin with the Upper Hamersley Group rocks forming larger steeper hills behind. Lithologies comprise meta-sedimentary rocks from the Hamersley Group and cover units of the Tertiary and Quaternary.

Rio Tinto initially conducted exploration for Channel Iron Deposit (CID) in the southern part of Caliwingina using geophysical techniques and an extensive reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme during 2002-2003 which delineated a 6 km continuous length of CID. During 2005/2006 Rio Tinto continued an RC drilling programme to the north following the CID channel to the out wash area in the Fortescue Valley.