Australia's Grange Resources announced its operational results for July to September quarter 2011 on Oct 25. The company's Savage River iron ore operation in the State of Tasmania continued to achieve excellent performance.

During the quarter, pellet prices remained very strong which contributed to the positive results. The development of the Southdown project near Albany in Western Australia is progressing on schedule and under budget, and its Definitive Feasibility Study is due for completion in January to March quarter 2012.

Pellets production at Savage River during the quarter was 0.506 million tonnes, and continues on track to produce 2 million tonnes of pellets in 2011. It is expected to ramp up to 2.3 million tonnes per annum in 2012. Unit costs for pellets production in the quarter were USD 127.72 per tonne. The average price received during the quarter was US$218 per tonne of pellets (FOB Port Latta). Cash and receivables for the company as at Sep 30 were AUD 215.6 million owing to the strong sales of pellets, which increased by 17.4% from AUD 183.7 million as at June 30.

Meanwhile, costs of AUD 13.6 million were incurred on the Southdown DFS during the quarter (Grange's 70% equity share).

(Sourced from The TEX Report)