check it out, page-26

Hardrock

-flow sheet gives 25% magnetite & 75% tails;
-approx 1 tonne of water treats 1 tonne of ore to make 250kg magnetite, so budget to produce 1mtpa concs = 4glpa... need alot of water;
-magnetite is roasted to hematite to make v soluble, leached to preg liquor;
-after leaching left with 1mtpa fe-ti oxide that is unsaleable and is stacked out to a waste dump. it runs approx 55% fe + 15% tio2. i think wvl have tried to sell it but plan is to make dump bigger so probably no joy;

extraction flow sheet for shephards hill magnetite to pig iron + vanadium + titanium is complex. the only places that do it do because they have to - eg china & south africa because they traditionally are short of iron ore. it's messy & high cost. this is who wvl compare themselves against to be low cost - closed economy processes producing a number of high cost products.

in terms of iron ore windimurra-style is probably the least attractive type. capital cost for mxr would be approx $500 million for wvl sized plant. to produce concentrate only maybe $200 million for 1mtpa plant. this is pretty expensive magnetite compared to dso. magnetite producers battle high energy useage, intensive processing (crush, grind, bene, pelletise), high water useage = high captial + high operating.

if there's a successful magnetite producer shipping product out of wa in 5 years time i'll be surprised. this includes people like atlas, gindalbie, accent, murchison, midwest, aurox, maximus, and windimurra. all good day trades, on good day. the right announcement from mxr will see a tidy profit.

have a read of this link - it's the most sense i've heard about iron ore for a while.

http://www.bciron.com.au/images/stories/media_articles/eureka_report_-_tim_treadgold_-_30.11.07.pdf