Ann: December 2022 Quarterly Activities Report, page-16

"what would Queen Elizabeth know"

Probably what the Premier of Western Australia told her.

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinborough were escorted and informed around Koolan by the Premier of Western Australia . . . who was very keen to build the industry in WA and who was actively engaging in lifting trade embargos that prohibited exporting iron ore to Japan.
When Queen Elizabeth visited Koolan it was being run by BHP

Koolan's iron ore reserves were originally surveyed by government surveyors to be 69 mt (at that time total world surveyed iron ore reserves were just 250mt).

In the 40 years that BHP operated Koolan they extracted 50 mt . . . an average of just 1.25 mt per year.

Last quarter alone, limping along on moblie crushing plant, Peter Kerr still managed 0.7 mt while at the same time increasing the stock pile of mined ore to 0.8 mt. Once the crusher plant repairs are completed next month we should be able to produce around 1mt per quarter (triple the production of when BHP ran Koolan).

The reason BHP gave up on Koolan is because they were only interested in taking the easy pickings.
Koolan under Mt Gibson management are extracting ore from well over 100 metres below sea level. Peter Kerr is also following two strike zones that will increase life of mine. These two strikes are also of high grade.