Gindalbie Metals Limited announced that the first commercial shipment of iron ore from the Karara Project in Western Australia has been dispatched from the new Karara Export Terminal in Geraldton, marking another significant milestone for the Karara Project and the first time the integrated Mine, Rail and Port logistics chain servicing the Project has been utilized.
Loading of the shipment of hematite direct shipping ore (DSO), onto the Panamax vessel M.V.Jai Tai, was completed yesterday afternoon and the ship departed Geraldton on last night's high tide, bound for China.
The maiden shipment comprised approximately 58,000 tonnes of hematite DSO.
This first shipment of DSO marks the start of regular shipments of hematite from Karara, with production and shipments expected to ramp up to an annualised rate of 2Mtpa towards the end of 2012.
This follows the official opening of the Karara Export Terminal by the WA Treasurer and Transport Minister, Troy Buswell on September 18th 2012.
The new facilities at Geraldton comprise a dedicated berth (Berth 7) and 5,000tph ship-loader, a 255,000t storage facility and a twin-car rotary dumper for train unloading. The Karara Export Terminal is capable of handling up to 16Mtpa, which is sufficient for Stage One and the anticipated Stage Two of the Karara Project.
Karara currently has stockpiles of approximately 1.8 million tonnes of hematite DSO. This has been a specific risk management strategy, enabling the commissioning of the entire logistics chain to be completed ahead of the commissioning of the magnetite processing facility and then for this logistics chain to continue being fully used while production of magnetite concentrate progressively ramps up over a forecast six-month period from the first production.
Mr Tim Netscher MD of Gindalbie said the first DSO shipment was the achievement of yet another milestone for the Karara Project, with each milestone further demonstrating delivery of management's promises in a difficult project environment and also representing the elimination of one more start-up risk.
Source - Gindalbie
(www.steelguru.com)
