MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Miners Rio Tinto and BHP Group said on Tuesday they had begun to resume operations at some facilities that had been halted as two separate cyclones battered Australia's northern coastline over the weekend.
Tropical Cyclone Veronica pummelled iron ore export ports on the northern coast of Western Australia before weakening and gradually moving west. Meanwhile, Cyclone Trevor landed in northern Queensland and then moved into the Gulf of Carpentaria where it made landfall before being downgraded to a low-pressure system on Sunday.
Rio Tinto said on Tuesday that staff were returning to its ports and rail operations in Western Australia and that mining was resuming at its Robe Valley operations in the state.
"With weather clearing, staff will gradually start returning to affected port and rail sites today with normal operations to resume once it is safe to do so," Rio said.
In a separate statement, it said operations at its bauxite mine in Weipa, Queensland, have been ramped back up after they were closed last Wednesday ahead of the bad weather. Bauxite is the raw material used to make aluminium.
"Rio Tinto Weipa Operations have returned to normal activities with both ports fully operational by Sunday afternoon," it said in an emailed statement.
The miner noted that there were no injuries to employees or contractors as a result of the cyclone in Weipa. It did not give any estimate for any production that may have been impacted.
Meanwhile, BHP Group said that it had found no major damage to its iron ore operations as clean-up work and systems and equipment safety checks were underway at Port Headland.
"Our employees and contractors have commenced returning to work in preparation for production to recommence. We expect to restart loading ships today with production ramping up over the next few days," BHP said in statement.
The Pilbara Ports Authority, which operates the iron ore exporting ports of Port Hedland and Ashburton, said in a statement it had reopened both sites following infrastructure assessments. There was no significant infrastructure damage at either port and operations would return to normal in the next 24 hours, it added.
Iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group Ltd said its Port Hedland sites experienced minor flooding but its mining and processing operations continued unaffected over the weekend. It added that a return to shipping operations was underway.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; additional reporting by Byron Kaye; editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kenneth Maxwell)
