Mining giant Rio Tinto will accelerate iron ore expansion in the Pilbara region of Western Australia with a $676 million investment, the company announced.

The boost will help Rio to achieve capacity expansion to 333 million tons a year in the first half of 2015, six months ahead of schedule, the company said.

"Thanks to this faster pace of expansion we will be bringing extra tons to market earlier," Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto chief executive for iron ore and Australia, said in a statement.

Analysts say that Rio Tinto, which has headquarters in London and is the world's second largest iron ore producer, can be expected to supply about 25 percent of the world's supply of the steel-making commodity over the next eight years.

By that time, the global market is projected to grow at 100 tons a year, up from 85 million tons annually over the past four years.

"The demand outlook continues to be strong with supply lagging elsewhere in the industry and we are seeing new supplies proving slower to materialize than predicted," Walsh said. "We are taking the opportunity to bring forward the next phase of our major capacity expansion to reap the benefits early and at no additional cost."

Record production in 2010 of 224 million tons at the company's iron ore operations accounted for more than 70 percent of the global miner's $14.3 billion profit for 2010, buoyed in part by Chinese demand.

Rio Tinto said the $676 million would go toward additional port construction, accommodation, dredging, marine works, early rail engineering and procurement of key rail and port equipment.

The company said it would continue studies to determine the best mine development path to meet its projections, along with studies on supporting infrastructure.

The announcement comes two weeks after Australia's Fortescue Metals Group, the country's third largest iron ore miner, pushed forward to mid 2012 the tripling of its Pilbara iron ore capacity to 155 million tons.

Rio Tinto's acceleration plan follows the company's announcement last week that it will double its fleet of driverless, GPS-navigated haul trucks at its Pilbara iron ore operations, the latest phase in the company's "Mine of the Future" program launched in 2008.

"Mine of the Future is giving Rio Tinto a competitive edge in the global mining landscape by generating more efficient and cost-competitive methods of finding, extracting and processing mineral resources and providing new, engaging and diverse employment opportunities," Rio Tinto head of innovation John McGagh said in a statement.

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