Sadly it falls to poor old me to once again pop an iron ore dream:
SA MINING company Iron Road’s $4.5 billion Eyre Peninsula iron ore mine and infrastructure projected is set to create thousands of jobs after receiving approval from the State Government.
The Central Eyre Iron Project, if developed, would employ up to 2000 people during construction, and about 700 ongoing positions during the mine’s expected 25-year lifespan.
It would be Australia’s largest magnetite mine, expected to produce 21.5 million tonnes of ore per year for more than a quarter of a century.
However, the company still needs to secure the project’s remaining financing by December.
…The Iron Road board is yet to make a final investment decision to go ahead with the project but the company recently received formal expressions of interest from three major Chinese banks to help fund it.
…Another Chinese company, China Railway Group, has already agreed to take 10 million tonnes of ore from the project per year once it is operational.
No it won’t. It will turn into a mid-sized white elephant. If it were low cost it would have been developed long ago. I have no idea what the break even is but even with higher prices for magnetite, similar mines such as Sino in WA are well above $50 on a 62% basis.
That makes them uneconomic from here to eternity in my book.
Not that Chinese capital cares.
Or rather, knows very well!
