One more to that list - Investigate and then enter into a longer-term shipping arrangement. If production volumes become predictable, longer-term shipping arrangements can be made. This would remove short-term shipping cost risks and may result in substantial savings.
It would appear to cost slighly under US$8m to enter into a 1yr contract. Is someone with shipping knowledge able to confirm what costs within this are met by the owner and what additional costs (if any) are met by the client entering the contract?
Example using Panamax (because that's the rate quoted below)
Using 35 days as an average return trip (Top Fair was under this), 10 return trips can be made a year. A Panamax carrying 80kt could therefore shift 800kt/yr - most of E25's planned new production level post expansion. US$8m shifting 800kt of ore is US$10/t and about one-third of the costs being paid for Top Fair which was in the low US$30/t range and under the US$18/t rate quoted as long-term in the Sep Quarterly. While TopFair was an improvement on the horrible shipping costs of Q3, it still wasn't cheap. One of the resident down-rampers previously confirmed that Mini-Cape's at 110kt can use Port Hedland. That may be even better than the option above as it may allow shifting around 1m/yr.
(20min delay)