FMG & magnetite is nothing new, they have been progressing/developing Iron Bridge since 2010. There is just a LOT more discussion happening regarding “green steel”, what it takes to produce it & the effects on pollution from using lower grade products especially since last yrs summit & with China attempting to clear their sky’s for the Olympics. Also the absolutely ridiculous extreme weather we are currently experiencing all around the world is reinforcing the climate change issue for billions of people.
FMG along with most of the majors, BHP, RIO, GINA, Mineral Resources will all need access to magnetite as the majority of their DSO is falling in FE% and are receiving heavy discounts on the base 62% spot price.
Vale has access to 65% so it’s happy days for them, will RIO pull the trigger on Africa........ who knows they’ve already sunk a tremendous amount of money in there but will they be game to risk corruption, monsoons, political coup’s, infrastructure issues, labor shortages, worker health problems, etc etc.
If they don’t where do they look??? Possibly a 5BT reserve in a politically stable environment, run off renewable energy close to existing infrastructure with a reliable weather & workforce?
Take a look at the article by FMG below & you’ll see our $/T is more than comparable to theirs, they have already spent more money in stage 1 & trials then our total start up costs, our reserves are of a similar size as is our final FE% ours should be slightly higher. Yes they are planning a 22mtpa operation & our initial capacity will currently be around 2.7-3mtpa, however it has already been stated that expansion is being investigated up to a possible 9mtpa. However they are planning on spending another $2.6-2.9B to achieve this!!!
There has been comments that if they can’t do it then how can we, well there are some differences.... strip ratio, rock hardness, location all which have been discussed over and over. Then add on primary contractors & their labour issues. All of which our management has been able to learn from, this is why they are assembling the team we are seeing from our EPCM to our advisor & new board members.
You will also note that the WA govt is chipping in $350M+ towards port & rail infrastructure, yet there is still a lot of HC posters that don’t believe the SA govt would undertake a similar investment to secure a tremendous windfall which will support generations of Sth Australians??
https://www.fmgl.com.au/docs/default-source/announcements/iron-bridge-project-approval.pdf?sfvrsn=8cdff6a3_4DYOR NFA
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