Cyclone Lucas to hit Western Australia iron ore region

Iron ore vessels are preparing to leave the anchorage at Western Australia's Port Hedland as an imminent Cyclone Lucas develops and moves southwest towards the Pilbara coast.

A tropical low is expected to develop into Cyclone Lucas by the morning of 22 January, before intensifying and approaching the Pilbara coast around 100km to the northeast of Port Hedland on the morning of 23 January as a category 3 system.

Port Hedland, which services Pilbara iron ore producers BHP, Fortescue Metals, Roy Hill and Mineral Resources, sits on the edge of the gale force wind boundary for the system, under today's forecast issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Dampier and Cape Lambert, which service UK-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto, sit southwest of Port Hedland and are further from the current expected path of the cyclone.

Cyclone Lucas is expected to be similar in intensity to Cyclone Damien that hit the Pilbara coast near Dampier in February last year. It prompted Rio Tinto to cut its 2020 production guidance to 324mn-334mn t from 330mn-343mn t.

Most of the major oil and gas production units are located to the southwest of the expected path of the cyclone, including the North West Shelf joint venture at Dampier.

By Jo Clarke