Cloudbreak
Fortescue’s first minesite, Cloudbreak currently mines and processes ore at a rate of around 40 million tonnes per annum. More than 2,000 people work a family friendly eight days on, six days off roster at the site which has been in full operation since May 2008.
The horizontal nature of the deposits at Cloudbreak called for a new mining approach to that used at other mines which operate on vertical deposits of ore. Overburden removal is done using conventional blast, truck and shovel methods while specially designed surface miners cut and load the ore into trucks for transport to the run of mine stockpiles.
Screening, crushing and desand plants at the Cloudbreak ore processing facility prepare and refine the product before the ore is stockpiled ahead of transport to port. The train loadout facility at Cloudbreak is capable feeding 16,000 tonnes of ore per hour on the 2.7 kilometre long trains ready for the journey along the 256 kilometre heavy haul railway to our facilities at Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland.