EMERGING iron ore play Atlas Iron is reportedly looking to raise...

EMERGING iron ore play Atlas Iron is reportedly looking to raise $100 million to fund the fast-tracking of development and exploration at its projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.



Drilling at Atlas Iron's Pardoo iron ore project

According to a report in the West Australian, Atlas is looking to raise the capital by way of an institutional bookbuild arranged by Perth brokers Hartleys.

The Perth-based company entered into a trading halt yesterday pending the announcement of “a proposed capital raising predominantly to fund the fast-tracking of development and exploration of its projects”.

The funding is expected to go towards development of its flagship Pardoo project as well as its Abydos project in the Pilbara.

The company is working to complete environmental approvals and begin shipping of DSO iron ore from Pardoo by October this year. It is targeting export of one million tonnes of DSO iron ore in the first year of operations, ramping up to 3Mtpa by 2010.

With the development of its Abydos project, Atlas is targeting production of 6Mtpa of DSO before 2012.

The company is moving Abydos towards pre-feasibility stage and plans to begin shipping ore by the second half of 2009.

MiningNews.net was unable to obtain comment from Atlas managing director David Flanagan at the time of writing.