Hey Wes,Cheers mate! What has me so upbeat about the Australian...

Hey Wes,

Cheers mate!

What has me so upbeat about the Australian Government's new renewables incentive package?

Fortescue's Green Iron project in Western Australia - Green Iron Trial Commercial Plant at Christmas Creek.

1. It's been FID approved.

2. It's going to cost them US$50 million to construct the Plant.

3. With first production in 2025.

4. In the first quarter of FY23 the company highlighted that they "achieved a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of green iron by successfully processing 150kg of iron ore to make metallic iron that could pave the way for the production of green iron at scale".

5. On the 21/11/23 the company informed the market that they were looking to construct the Green Iron Trial Commercial Plant at Christmas Creek with annual production of more than 1,500 tonnes or 1500000 kgs, a sizeable increase in production from what was achieved at the start of the FY23.

6. The company also informed investors that they were going to utilise their existing green hydrogen infrastructure at Christmas Creek to lower the overall capital requirement and demonstrate a green pit to product supply chain.

7. To reach significant scale the project will need to get up to the 100,000 tonne mark, so it will be interesting to see what percentage increase there's been since late last year.

8. What's also encouraging is that they're continuing to add renewable energy to their network and that their costs are coming down (as recently announced). Their focus has always been on keeping their operating costs as low as they can and they're already demonstrating that they are doing that. Also of note (refer to references below) is that the pilot's technology options will support both magnetite and hematite ores.

9. I believe the new incentive package from the Australian Government is going to have a very positive impact going forward with this project on so many levels.

10. What's this all going to mean in the long run? Quote from our CEO - “We are confident that our approach will drive growth for Fortescue through new, high value products being sold into new markets, ultimately leading to an increase in the number of iron units we sell.”

References:

https://cdn.fortescue.com/docs/default-source/announcements-and-reports/2512248.pdf?sfvrsn=56690a34_4

and

https://cdn.fortescue.com/docs/default-source/announcements-and-reports/2644422.pdf?sfvrsn=a008e01c_10

Here's the latest update on the project

https://fortescue.com/what-we-do/our-projects/christmas-creek-green-iron-pilot

Tony