A $65 million proposal to expand BHP’s Port Haven Village accommodation in a bid to house more than 450 workers in Port Hedland has been approved.
Resolve Group, acting on behalf of BHP’s engineering and design consultant Tetra Tech, submitted the development application to the Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel.
The JDAP unanimously approved BHP’s proposed expansion of its workforce accommodation village on Great Northern Highway, near Port Hedland International Airport, during its meeting today.
The proposal includes the retention of the existing accommodation units of 1,202 rooms, and the addition of 452 rooms.
Other features of the expansion include a new recreation centre, new laundry building, café, and additional car parking.
Resolve Group planning consultant Jordan Busher said there was significant demand for workforce accommodation, exacerbated by mining projects in Port Hedland.
“To meet this demand now and into this future, BHP has developed purposed built facilities at Port Haven,” he said at the JDAP meeting.
Port Haven Village has been in operation since 2012.
According to the applicant’s documents, 67.7 per cent of Port Haven residents were BHP employees as of September 2022.
“During the 2023 financial year, BHP invested $39.2 million dollars into operating costs of running their Port Hedland portfolio, including residential and commercial assets,” a report said.
“Throughout the [past] five years Port Haven has increased its local spend year on year, with a record of $3.7 million in FY224.
“In 2023, in response to increasing demand for accommodation by BHP operations personnel and contractors, BHP proposed the expansion of Port Haven village.
“BHP operations are currently experiencing higher demand for accommodation in Port Hedland than capacity available in existing accommodation facilities, even with use of third-party providers.
“Throughout 2022, shutdown scopes and timing were amended or cancelled due to lack of accommodation, and project schedules continue to be at risk due to constrained accommodation.”
Earlier this year, BHP announced plans to bump up its iron ore production from 300 million tonnes per annum to 330mtpa.
BHP WA iron ore asset president Brandon Craig previously said BHP had started studies on the expansion plans, identifying that constraints were largely driven by bottlenecks at Port Hedland.
The mining giant has started to address the issue through a debottlenecking program, which started in 2022.
The Port Haven workforce village expansion is expected to be completed by 2025, according to the applicant’s report.
JDAP acting specialist member John Syme said transient workforce accommodation (TWA) are part of the work life of the local economy.
“This ends up being a pretty high standard TWA, credit to BHP that they’re spending this [much] money on it,” he said at the meeting.
“This is a complex project and I think a bit of leeway for applicant to work through it for some of these issues, we’ve allowed for it here while also protecting the interests of the town. “
