Less than five months after breaking ground at the Wonmunna Iron Ore project, our team has delivered first ore, serving as another example of our industry leading ability to safely and efficiently bring new product to market.
The Wonmunna operation, located 80km North-West of Newman and 360km South of Port Hedland, was purchased from the Australian Aboriginal Mining Corporation (AAMC) in September 2020. In line with the undisclosed terms of the transaction, AAMC shareholders will receive a royalty in respect of the first 40 million dry metric tonnes extracted and removed from the area.
The project is set to ramp-up to its nameplate capacity of 5Mtpa in the June quarter 2021. There is potential to expand Wonmunna’s output to the designed capacity of 10Mtpa upon the successful grant of additional approvals, at little extra capital costs.
Ore from the project will be used to underpin our Utah Point Hub iron ore blend which includes tonnes from our Iron Valley site. The addition of our Wonmunna project will help boost output from the Utah point export facility towards 14Mtpa by the end of the December 2021 quarter.
Wonmunna’s rapid and safe development is testimony to the MRL team’s ability to deliver what others thought impossible. This is a great outcome not just for MRL but also for AAMC’s shareholders, who will shortly receive their first royalty cheque from Wonmunna, and the people of Western Australia as the project has created 500 jobs across the mine site and transport network.
