Australia's Gindalbie Metals and Chinese metals group Sinosteel will start shipping iron ore to China on Thursday at a rate of 60,000 per month for eight months.

High grade Karara hematite lump ore is currently being loaded onto the Panamax vessel MV Ju Da, which is scheduled to sail for China.

A Gindalbie spokesman said that two thirds of the ore will come from Sinosteel's Koolanooka mine, operated by an Australian subsidiary and the rest from Gindalbie's newly developed Karara mine under an agreement reached earlier this year.

Both mines are located in west Australia's Mid West region around 1,000 kiometer south of the traditional Pilbara iron belt dominated by major producers Rio Tinto , BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group , which this year are forecast to ship a combined 500 million tonnes.

(Sourced from Reuters)