BHP WA Iron Ore has celebrated 10 years of its remote operations centre in Perth.

The Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC) began operating from BHP’s St Georges Terrace office at the end of 2012.

The IROC is responsible for operating most of BHP’s WA iron ore logistics and processes, connecting the four processing hubs and five mining hubs with more than 1000km of rail and port facilities in the Pilbara.

WAIO Asset President Brandon Craig said: “The remote operations centre runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and plays a vital role in ensuring we get our iron ore from pit to port in the safest, quickest and most efficient way possible.

“Our iron ore operations are safer, more sustainable and more cost efficient now than they were 10 years ago, and the remote operations centre has been critical to achieving that.

“The growth in the centre has supported technological advances, career opportunities and with that has come diversification of the team – nearly half of the workforce is female and 12 per cent identify as Indigenous.”

The centre operates a wide range of machinery, trains, trucks and drill rigs in the Pilbara and has recently begun the process of automating the company’s shiploaders in Port Hedland.