Fe is priced at so many cents per iron unit. ie; US97 cents (benchmark fines price) for each 1% of iron. So the price will depend on the Fe grade of the product...clearly the higher the grade the better price it attracts.
Secondly the product needs to fit within an acceptable range of impurities. If any impurity is higher than the accepted range then there are penalties associated with those impurities, and this is deducted from the selling price. Of course if the impurities reach an unacceptable range the there is no penalty, rather that the product doesn't have a market.
Steel mills blend different ores to get the right feed for their mill. So they may accept a low iron/high phos ore and blend it with a high iron/low phos ore. Same with the other impurities.
It really is like baking a cake.
Yes there are also premiums for the right type of ore. Typically high grade, low impurity ore. The premium paid will be by negotiation between the producer and the mill. As far as I know there are no set premiums, unlike some set penalties for less attractive ore.
I agree that if we can keep the impurities low, as we have done to date, then after beneficiation we will have a high grade, low impurity product. Irvine is particularly fortunate that phos, sulphur and alumina (the real "nasties") are low in both the DSO and beneficiated product. Our "impurity" is silica, and fortunately this is the easiest impurity to separate, particularily if the silica and iron are both coarse grained, as is the case with the ore on Irvine.
I also agree that the product from Irvine should be a highly desirable product.
Cheers, Tony.
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