I think we can be assured that china will never mine it's own IO...

I think we can be assured that china will never mine it's own IO and the Simandou mine is a chimera - it will certainly struggle to get anywhere near commercial production within the next six decades, never mind three years.
Trying not to belabour the point, this potential mine is situated in an African country whose government is currently against chinese development. There is no existing rail line to an export port from this potential mine and no current possibilty of finance for such an infrastructure project. There is no capacity for loading at existing ports even if the ore could be gotten there. There are no roads anywhere near the potential mine site and no housing for staff, no medical infrastructure, no recreational facilities, no airports for FIFO workers to transit through and, crucially, no skilled staff to operate the non existent mine, no infrastructure to supply the mine and no ability to supply spare parts and machinery to this non existent chinese fantasy project.
You would need to have rocks in your head to take this Simandou nonsense seriously. It's a desperate CCP misinformation campaign and a pathetic one at that.