Powerful Tropical Cyclone Zelia hits Australia’s iron ore hub
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An uprooted tree as Cyclone Zelia made landfall in a suburb of Port Headland, Western Australia.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY – Tropical Cyclone Zelia made landfall on Australia’s west coast on Feb 14, the country’s weather bureau said, lashing the world’s largest iron ore hub with heavy rain and wind gusts up to 290kmh.
The eye of the category five storm, the highest rating on the scale, crossed the coast east of Port Hedland just after 12pm, as a category five cyclone, the highest rating on the scale.
It then moved south and weakened to a category four, sparing the town’s population centre from its most destructive winds.
“This is a very dangerous system that will cause significant impact and is causing impacts as we speak,” Mr Matthew Collopy, a forecaster with Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.
Cyclone Zelia is the most severe storm to hit the Pilbara coast since Cyclone Ilsa in April 2023.
The bureau warned the system could bring record-breaking rainfall for the resource-rich region in the state of Western Australia, with up to 300mm of rainfall expected in the next 24 hours and 500mm over the next three days.
Port Hedland’s port, the world’s biggest iron ore export point, closed on Feb 12, while the ports of Dampier and Varanus Island, a gathering and processing hub for oil and gas, were shut down on Feb 13 evening.
Cape Lambert was also shut.
Port Hedland is used by BHP Group, Fortescue and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, while the Dampier and Cape Lambert ports ship iron ore from Rio Tinto.
BHP and Fortescue said separately that their Port Hedland operations had been paused for safety and that teams had been instructed to shelter at home or at camp.
Fortescue said it had also closed its Iron Bridge mining operations and cancelled non-essential travel to Pilbara sites.
Rio said it had cleared its Cape Lambert and Dampier port operations and there were no longer any ships or trains operating at its ports, and reiterated an earlier statement that its first-quarter shipments would be affected by weather events.
“The company is working to mitigate impacts and will provide operational updates as appropriate,” Rio said in a statement.
All three of Australia’s iron ore miners are scheduled to report financial results next week.
Iron ore futures prices rose on Feb 14 and were on track for a weekly gain, supported by heightened concerns over the cyclone-led supply disruptions in Australia.
Iron ore is the primary raw material used to make steel.
Port Hedland’s 15,000 residents, most of whom are mining company employees, have been advised to seek shelter indoors, while non-essential staff have been moved to safe locations.
Some supermarkets have been closed, ABC News reported, after essential supplies ran out as people stocked up. REUTERS
