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Article courtesy of Australian Mining.

We caught up with Roy Hill chief executive officer Gerhard Veldsman to chat about his company’s successes and the honour of taking home the Australian Mine of the Year Award at the 2021 Prospect Awards.

The most prestigious gong of the night, the Australian Mine of the Year Award commends a site that has not only reached its production goals, but has also implemented commendable safety controls, environmental and sustainability programs, and/or has shown its capacity to innovate in order to drive the industry ahead.

The award also recognises an exceptionally well-performing and achieving mine. It is imparted to a winner of one of the other categories, further adding to the prestige of the award.

And with two other wins on the night – Hard Rock Mine and Lifetime Achievement – Roy Hill Holdings was a worthy recipient of the Australian Mine of the Year Award.

Roy Hill’s chief executive officer Gerhard Veldsman felt especially proud and honoured by the company’s accomplishments.

“Being named both Hard Rock Mine of the Year and Australian Mine of the Year is a great honour and one we are all very proud of,” he said.

“In the financial year 2021, Roy Hill achieved outstanding improvements across both safety and production despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19.

“We’re also pleased to have progressed significant new projects and growth opportunities, providing more jobs and increased royalties and revenues for state and federal governments, helping fund critical infrastructure and services.”

Hancock Prospecting Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rinehart’s Lifetime Achievement Award coincided with her 30th anniversary as executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting, making this recognition that much more momentous.

“This exceptional period in Roy Hill’s history has been achieved under the inspiration and leadership provided by our executive chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart, who quite fittingly was recognised tonight for her outstanding contribution to the industry in general,” Veldsman said.

“Just one of the things Mrs Rinehart has led has included driving that we speed up the payment of the bills of our loyal suppliers.

“And we are proud to say we are now one of the two fastest payers in the industry, further improving our relationships with our suppliers.”

Roy Hill is a renowned mining operation, representing the next generation of integrated iron ore mining, rail, and port projects.

The company’s Marra Mamba iron ore deposit is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, one of the world’s premier iron ore provinces.

The mine delivered record iron ore shipments in FY21, which were seven per cent higher than FY20 and five per cent higher than FY19, achieving the best on-record equivalent annual run rate of more than 60 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) in the fourth quarter of FY21.

The FY21 operating performance was achieved despite the impact of wet weather, as well as COVID-19 restrictions that required many Roy Hill employees to remain on-site for extended periods during WA’s border lockdowns and the disruptions to employees based in eastern states.

A comprehensive COVID-19 risk management strategy remains in place and, at the time of the awards, Roy Hill had not recorded a single case of COVID-19 at its Pilbara mine (including both direct employees and contractors), or at its remote operations centre in Perth.

Roy Hill certainly has form at these awards, having received the Minerals Processing of the Year nod in 2020 for its development of the innovative Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separator (WHIMS).

Capturing high-grade ultrafine material that would otherwise end up as tailings, the WHIMS plant reduces waste and provides additional shipped ore without increasing the volume of material mined.

This feature appeared in the May issue of Australian Mining.