Recent reports have revealed that Rio Tinto, the mining firm has won an official approval by the Government of Western Australia for continuing the initial phase of the iron ore expansion project at the Pilbara region. This huge project includes a sum of $3.9 billion.

According to this agreement, the Rio Tinto shall have to develop an alternative option for their water supply that would be provided for the Bungaroo Valley. It has been revealed that the cost of development for the same would be about $292million.

According to this deal, the government of West Australia shall also put on hold the plan of $370 million that was previously set aside for the Desalination Project for the West Pilabara region. This is because there has already been a lot of water supply that has been set secure for the town such as Wickham, O’Reobourne, Karratha and Dampier.

"It also allows other businesses and industries to plan investment projects, knowing that water is available to meet the needs of an expanded population”, as revealed by Brendon Grylls, the Regional Development Minister.

It was also revealed that another benefit of this move would be that some of the previous agreements made by the firm with the government about the development of a second iron ore processing plan would be relaxed, a bit.