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Fortescue Metals Group holds back decision on Iron Bridge magnetite to the new year

Peter MilneThe West Australian
Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:13AM
Peter Milne

FMG chief executive Elizabeth Gaines.Picture: Danella Bevis

A decision on Fortescue’s proposed Iron Bridge magnetite project has been pushed back to the new year.
Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said the decision required the backing of joint venture partners Formosa Group, from Taiwan, and China’s Baosteel.
A full-sized grinding plant has been built to test the processing of the 7.9 billion tonne magnetite resource, the biggest in Australia.


If the project went ahead, additional plants would be added to reach capacity.
“We have produced a 67 per cent iron magnetite concentrate product, so it’s a very high-grade product which in the current market would sell at a significant premium,” Ms Gaines said.
She said there was still work to be done on the scale of the mine and its costs to de-risk the project.
Chief operating officer Greg Lilleyman said Iron Bridge would require less energy than CITIC Pacific’s troubled Sino Iron Ore project.
It used a different technology — high pressure grinding rolls — to grind the low grade ore fine enough so the iron can be liberated.