Fortescue’s Iron Bridge magnetite delivery pushed into the new financial year
First shipments of concentrate from the mine are now due to be loaded at Port Hedland in July which is slightly later than had been anticipated.
Fortescue Metals Group has suffered another minor slippage at its Iron Bridge magnetite project in the Pilbara, pushing back delivery of its first shipment from the mine into next financial year.
Fortescue iron ore boss Fiona Hick told the World Mining Congress in Brisbane on Tuesday the first shipment of concentrate from the mine was due to be loaded on to a ship at the company’s Port Hedland facilities in July.
The company declared first production from the massive processing plant in late May and previously had given guidance that it expected first shipments in the current financial year – albeit of less than 1 million tonnes in total.
“Importantly, the plant delivered to specification – better than 67 per cent iron grade, low impurity product within the first week of processing,” Ms Hick said.
“Industry experts will tell you that’s a pretty phenomenal achievement with many magnetite projects globally taking months or even years to reach grade, with some never reaching target grade.”
The production milestone came a year later than initially planned and Fortescue’s last estimate of cost was $US3.9bn, $US1.3bn more than the budget when the company made its final investment decision in 2019.
Ms Hick told the congress the company also had loaded the first iron ore from its Belinga project in Gabon on to a train, as the company pushed ahead with work on a small starter project in the country. But she did not bring forward the company’s estimate that Belinga would be delivering iron ore to customers by the end of the year.
“Every indication we have shows the project has potential to be significant scale and very high grade,” she said.
“We loaded the first ore to train just a few days ago and this keeps us on track to deliver the first shipment of iron ore from Gabon by the end of this year.”
The Australian understands the initial parcel of ore loaded was a relatively small quantity, designed to help the company commission its road, rail and port operations under load, and is not destined for immediate export.
Fortescue previously indicated it expected to spend about $US200m in capital to develop a small iron ore export operation in Gabon, as a prelude to the development of the broader Belinga deposit – formerly targeted for development by BHP and then a consortium of Chinese majors.
Fortescue shares closed up 61c to $21.95 on Tuesday.