Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison has faced down a market increasingly bearish about the future of the iron ore and lithium miner he founded, declaring it is up to the next chairman whether the company needs to raise more money to survive.

The businessman faced a barrage of questions from brokers on Wednesday, hours after MinRes reported an $800 million interim loss, reduced its iron ore production forecasts and warned of cost blowouts on a critical private road that it uses to ferry its product to port.