Weipa bauxite mine

The Weipa bauxite mine is a bauxite mine at Weipa on the western Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia. A geologist named Harry Evans discovered the vast bauxite resource in 1955. Operations commenced in 1963.
The mine is owned by Rio Tinto. Power to the mine is supplied via a 6.7MW solar photovoltaic solar farm on site. The ore is transported to the port via a 19 kilometre Standard Gauge railway. The majority of the mined bauxite is sent to the Queensland Alumina Limited and Rio Tinto Aluminum Yarwun refineries, both located in Gladstone.

History

Difficult market conditions lead to a nine per cent cut in production in 2009. In 2009, 16.3 million tonnes of bauxite was produced at the mine. In 2022, production totaled 34.5 million tonnes.