Nice little article here which lists all, or nearly all of the...

Nice little article here which lists all, or nearly all of the iron ore companies. Particular emphasis on explorers.

YML stands out like a beacon.....because of its small market cap. Aside from its small cap, right now is the only stock listed which has a significant direct shipping grade deposit (over 30MT) and adjoins Pilbara rail/port insfracture (ie BHP, RIO and FMG ).

Will there be funding for mid-west rail and port.? How long will rail/port take to be constructed ? Will the massive amount of funds for magnitite production be forthcoming ? (for companies that already have big capitalisations.)

Will take too long......too risky for stocks that already have big, big market values which must be serviced ,before any further share price rises....(when and if production EVER happens.)


Just derisk your investment in these other iron ore and start at the bottom with the company....which may have the best long term profitability anyway.

Standout prospect here.

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China's needs make ore a sure thing

Australian, page 4 Wednesday,

23 May 2007

You can jump-start your investment returns by buying iron ore stocks, Robin Bromby reports Do investors seeking iron ore exposure really need to look past Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton with their combination of world dominance, dazzling profits and price/earnings ratios to die for?

Well, yes. Buy those companies, and you are buying the safety of spread. You're also getting coal, gold, nickel, uranium and copper. Nothing wrong with that, as anyone who bought either Rio or BHP at the lift-off of the commodities boom will tell you.

But the juniors offer much more in terms of excitement, especially if quick capital gain is more the objective than letting dividends dribble in each six months.

Last year, Golden West Resources jumped from 39.5c to $3.20 as its Wiluna iron oreproject was talked tip out in the west. J

Just this month, United Minerals Corp's price took off on news of a big iron ore find in the Pilbara. Murchison Metals has shown a good return for those who paid 20c for its shares in March 2005; that stock marched through $3 this month.

The company has moved from explorer to producer, now shipping iron ore to a South Korean steelmaker (a large shareholder in Murchison). And the players will keep coming: Trafford Resources, which has the Wilcherry Hill deposit near Kimba, South Australia, has announced plans to spin that project off into a new listed company to be called Ironclad Mining.

None of the new iron ore players will make much of a difference to the world supply situation. A million tonnes here, two million there - it doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared with Rio's 132 million tonnes a year.

But that doesn't snake juniors insignificant to the investor, for one reason: China. China produces about 50 per cent of its own iron ore, or about 400 million tonnes a year. Their mines are mainly low-grade, some producing ore grading as little as 18 per cent iron ore against the 60 per cent level they aim for in the Pilbara with hematite ore.

If China closed clown all their mines, there wouldn't be enough iron ore being produced elsewhere in the world to keep its steel mills in business. Unless there is a sudden collapse in the world economy, China and other industrialising economies will be eager buyers for all that we can produce. In other words, find economic iron ore and you've got a business.

Joe Singer, who runs commodity investor and adviser Penfold out of Shanghai, believes that Chinese iron ore production will drop. The world's big three - Rio, BHP and Brazil's CVRD - are in expansionary mode. "Selling iron ore is not a problem" Singer says. He sees the Chinese investment here as "getting their toes wet", unlike the big commitments made by the Japanese in the 1960s to get iron ore production up andrunning in Australia.

Now, says Singer, much of the iron ore risk capital is coming from the big funds in the US and Europe that are, for example, backing Fortescue Metals Group, the intended "third pillar" of the Pilbara. Yet, iron ore doesn't have the "wow" factor that has made it possible for any new uranium project - however blue sky in nature - to open chequebooks across the land.

But, unlike the bulk of the uranium wannabees, many of the emerging pack of iron ore hopefuls have an established resource, a mine, transport and marketing plan and - crucially - key investors who can make things happen. On the resource issue, Murchison and Midwest are among those with established sales records.

Atlas Iron has a viable project and its location - 75km from Port Hedland - makes trucking viable. FerrAus, another with a resource on the drawing board, seems likely to be able to use a BHP railway to move its output.

In South Australia, Eyre Peninsula explorer Centrex Metals has both an initial resource at its Wilgerup project and an agreement with the local rail operator to haul the ore to Port Lincoln when mining starts. The deals with Asia are many; for example, Murchison has South Korean money;

FerrAus has the backing of big US and British funds; Singapore shipping and infrastructure player IMC Group last year took a 19.8 position in Atlas Iron. Two Chinese companies are in partnership with Aurox Resources, and Gindalbie Metals is building a pellet plant in China with Anshan Iron & Steel, while Centrex has Baotou Iron & Steel as well as Shenyang Orient Iron & Steel on its register.

Centrex managing director Gerard Anderson says the Chinese are anxious to secure future supplies of iron ore - and to retain some leverage in price negotiations.

They had watched as iron ore prices rose 19 percent in 2004, 71.5 per cent in 2005, 19 per cent in 2006 and 9.5 per cent this year.

The Asian steel mills had ruled the roost for many years, dictating prices to producers. No longer. Centrex is an example of just how quickly the junior iron ore sector has grown. It listed just eight months ago, and hopes to be in production from 2008. Sales contracts for 10 million tonnes have been signed for output from Wilgerup. a deposit discovered by the former Western Mining Corp but never followed up - WMC was looking for base metals. Meanwhile, drilling has begun at one of the other 14 licences held by Centrex on the Eyre Peninsula.

A few million tonnes a year is only a start as far as Anderson is concerned. "We want to be a major player for the next 50 years – and we've got the resources for that." Iron ore's new faces

Pilbara Aquila Resources

Atlas Iron
Aurox Resources AusQuest
Australasian Resources
BC Iron Cape Lambert Iron
Cazaly Resources
Echelon Resources
FerrAus
Iron Ore Holdings
Polaris Metals
United Minerals Corp
Yilgarn Mining
Midwest
Gindalbie Metals
Golden West Resources
Midwest Corp
Mt Gibson Iron
Murchison Metals
Royal Resources
Southern Western
Grange Resources
Minemakers South Australia
Centrex Metals
Goldstream Mining
Trafford Resources
Western Plains Resources

Note: Iron Mountain Mining recently completed an IPO based on projects in several regions of Western Australia