twiggy kicking goals again.with so much good news this stock...

twiggy kicking goals again.

with so much good news this stock should be $15 by now!!!!

Fortescue to double iron ore production
August 12, 2008

FORTESCUE METALS is forging ahead with plans to more than double its annual production capacity to 120 million tonnes of iron ore a year.

The miner yesterday awarded WorleyParsons a $260 million contract for engineering, procurement and construction management - a follow-on from a contract covering its initial 55 million tonnes of annual capacity.

Fortescue had until recently planned to expand from 55 million tonnes a year to 100 million tonnes a year of annual capacity.

But at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie last week, Fortescue's chief executive, Andrew Forrest, said his company's car dumper was performing better than expected.

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto each dump around 40 million to 45 million tonnes of iron ore a year from each of their car dumpers - expensive machines that automatically tip over the rail cars to unload the ore.

But Mr Forrest said Fortescue had demonstrated it could top that performance, allowing it to expand in increments of 60 million tonnes of annual production.

"To rely on reaching 60 million tonnes ourselves out of that car dumper, we needed to demonstrate we could consistently unload two iron ore cars every 90 seconds," he said, adding tests had proven Fortescue could achieve that goal in 84 seconds.

Based on that performance, Fortescue has decided it will initially expand to 120 million tonnes of annual production and then to 180 million tonnes.

Fortescue's railway has about 70 million tonnes of capacity, but Mr Forrest said it would be easy to add relatively cheap incremental capacity through additional passing loops, or sidings. Unlike BHP and Rio, Fortescue has offered to open its railway to third parties.

Fortescue plans to extend its railway from its Cloud Break mine to its Christmas Creek deposits. In a corporate video shown last week, Fortescue said a new ship-loader was scheduled for delivery; assembly next year and preparations to dredge additional berths at its Anderson Point site at Port Hedland were well advanced.

Fortescue was unable to officially start work on its expansion plans until it achieved "project completion" to the satisfaction of its bond-holders last month - shipping 2 million tonnes of iron ore within a month.

Mr Forrest said expanding the $4 billion project was not as "breathtaking in its achievability" as it had been to build the initial infrastructure over the last four years.

Fortescue shares closed 4c higher at $7.87. WorleyParsons shares closed 33c higher at $33.45.