Western Australia’s Iron Ore Export Hub Reopens as Cyclone Moves Inland

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The key iron ore export hub of Port Hedland reopened after the biggest cyclone to hit Western Australia in at least a decade made landfall, with a major gold mine facing destructive winds as the storm moves inland.

Port Hedland reopened at 11 a.m. local time Friday after an inspection of the channel and berths confirmed safe operations can resume, according to Pilbara Ports Authority. BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. ship iron ore from the harbor, which was closed on Thursday.

Severe tropical cyclone Ilsa crossed the coast overnight east of Port Hedland in a sparsely populated region as a category 5 — the strongest on the Australian scale. The storm is weakening as it tracks inland but has maintained cyclone intensity as it nears Newcrest Mining Ltd.’s Telfer gold and copper operation, which is 400 kilometers (248 miles) from the port.

Australia’s Iron Ore Export Hub Braces for Powerful Cyclone Ilsa

The Telfer mine started to implement plans to wind down production at the site and reduce staffing to a skeleton crew ahead of the cyclone, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Destructive wind gusts up to 155 kilometers per hour are set to hit Telfer on Friday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Ilsa was a category 2 cyclone and 15 kilometers west of Telfer as of 11 a.m. local time, according to a notice from the bureau.

The mayor of Port Hedland told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that winds from the cyclone were “like a freight train” but the town appeared to have been spared from major damage. The owners of Pardoo Roadhouse, a tavern and gas station along the coastline, reported “great damage” to their building after riding out the storm, according to local media.

Fortescue said no major damage has been reported across any of the company’s Pilbara operations and monitoring will continue over the coming days to assess potential flooding risk, according to a spokesperson. Some teams are commencing post-cyclone ramp up activities, they said.

Ilsa is the sixth tropical cyclone and the strongest to make landfall in Australia this season, which runs from Nov. 1 to April 30, according to the bureau. The storm is expected to dump as much as 200 millimeters (7.8 inches) of rain in some areas on Friday.

–With assistance from Liz Yee Xing Ng and Kevin Varley.

Photograph: Ore spills into a pile before it is processed at Newcrest Mining Ltd.’s Telfer Mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Photo credit: Will Burgess/Bloomberg