Fortescue mines future to survive

David Llewellyn-Smith

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Fortescue has released it March QTR production report and here are the highlights:

A few points:

volume is unchanged on the quarter but it raised annual guidance from 150 to 155 to 160 to 165 million tonnes
overburden removal is collapsing, down to 67mt from 91mt in a quarter. That tells you FMG is now mining only its best and most accessible deposits, and borrowing from the future by doing so
“all-in” costs (which are no such thing) fell from $41wmt to $34wmt
average realised price of $48 per tonne is at a 13% discount to spot, up from 12% in the previous QTR.

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.