HWE Mining, a division of Leighton Contractors, was awarded a contract to provide mine development services at Rio Tinto's Mesa A iron ore operation. The mine is located 50 kilometres from Pannawonica alongside the North West Coastal Highway in Western Australia's Pilbara region. The project was the first major contract awarded by Rio Tinto Iron Ore, through its subsidiary Robe River Mining, to HWE Mining.

HWE Mining was contracted to manage the mine development works and all associated infrastructure, as well as the design and construction of the ore handling and train loading plant. Specifically, the scope of works fell into the following areas:

• provision of registered Mine Manager and other statuary positions
• management of mine development work
• management of health and safety, environment, community and Indigenous affairs
• management of human resources, industrial relations, procurement, and logistics

• site clearing and grubbing
• topsoil stripping and stockpiling
• establishing of mining faces, mine roads, waste dumps and ore stockpiles
• movement of 8.8 mt of waste
• production of six million tonnes of blasted stocks

• ore processing plant to process 25Mtpa
• train loading plant to load 6 trains per day at 7,200 tph
• earthworks infrastructure including dams, roads, drains, stockpile pads, hardstands
• structural infastructure including workshops, offices, ANFO plant, magazines and fuel facilities
• services infrastructure such as power, water and communications