Atlas seeks partners for growth projects

The Australian reported that iron ore miner Atlas Iron aims to attract JV partners for future growth projects as it tries to finalise an infrastructure solution to support expansion plans.

The Perth based Pilbara miner reported strong Q4 results, taking its 2014 shipments to 10.9 million tonnes. It forecast it would reach 12.8 million tonnes in the next financial year.

Mr Ken Brinsden MD of Atlas Iron said that the company had reasonable revenue in a challenging market, and had cut costs and maintained a competitive price for its product.

Atlas Iron’s customers were given a 10% discount to the benchmark price, which Mr Brinsden said was a good outcome. He said that on an annualised basis, by the end of the financial year the company would have worked through projects that would deliver between USD 50 million and USD 80 million of annualised savings to underlying production costs.

Mr Brinsden said that sees us materially lowering our production cost into China. We closed the Q4 at USD 75 a tonne but we are guiding for between USD 68 and USD 73 a tonne for 2015.

The key to Atlas’s future success is an infrastructure solution that allows it to transport iron ore via a railway to the port. The market has been waiting for the miner to identify a rail solution. The company was continuing negotiations over rail haulage with third parties and was working to enter final agreements as soon as possible.

Mr Brinsden said that the iron ore miner had competitive options for growth. We don’t expect to be doing projects on our own. We think our Pilbara asset base is attractive for significant parties who look to be involved in these projects around the world.

He said that it is our intention once we open up the infrastructure solution. We have been able to demonstrate its commerciality and we will sell down joint venture interests in those projects and bring along a partner to develop globally competitive assets.

http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/Atlas_seeks_partners_for_growth_projects/345068.html