The Pilbara region comprises a large part of the ancient continental shield of Western Australia which is comprised of both Proterozoic and Archaean rocks. The Pilbara is overlain by the Proterozoics deposited in the Hamersley and Bangernall Provinces.

The BIF is a member of the ~620 m thick Brockman Iron Formation which makes up part of the 2.63 2.45 Ga Hamersley Group. The Hamersley Group comprises almost 2.5 km of consecutive sedimentary and volcanic rocks located within the ca. 80,000 km2 Hamersley Province of the Pilbara craton in North West Australia, approximately 1100 km north of Perth. In the lower part, it consists of dolomite, shale and BIF, while the upper part consists of dolerite, various lava types and BIF with minor amounts of tuffs and shales. Underlying the Hamersley Group, is the 2.78–2.63 Ga Fortescue Group, which consists of flood basalts and rhyolites. These volcanics were laid down on the uplifted and eroded Pilbara block. This volcanic succession may contain remnants of a Large Igneous Province (LIP).

The Brockman Iron Formation ofthe Hamersley Group is divided into four sub-lithostratigraphic units, namely the lowermost Dales Gorge Member (BIF), the Whaleback Shale Member, the Joffre Member (BIF), and the uppermost Yandicoogina Shale Member. After deposition, these laterally extensive BIF have all experienced minor folding and basinal uplift along with low-grade regional metamorphism – from burial prehnite–pumpellyite facies to greenschist facies.

General consensus exists regarding the depositional model of the Brockman Iron Formation. According to this model, the succession was deposited on a large, stable, and clastic-starved, continental platform, which was influenced by episodic inputs of fine-grained tuffaceous detritus.

The Western Turner Syncline iron ore mine is located approximately 20 kilometres north-west of the existing Tom Price mine and 20 km west of the town of Tom Price.

Western Turner Syncline uses traditional open cut, conventional drill-and-blast and load-and-haul mining methods to mine iron ore. Mined ore is transported to Tom Price mine for processing at a central processing facility via the existing overland conveyor.

Ore from the Western Turner Syncline mines is directed to either the high grade plant for dry crushing and screening to dry lump and fines products, or to the low grade plant for beneficiation. Heavy media separation is used to beneficiate low grade lump, and a combination of heavy media hydrocyclones and spirals is used to beneficiate the low grade fines. At Yandi, ore is crushed to fines product only through a combination of dry crushing and screening, or crushing and wet processing of ore using classifcation to remove finer particles