Australia’s MinRes on iron ore plan post-storm

Market: Metals
30/01/25

Australian metal producer Mineral Resources (MinRes) increased its iron ore shipments in October-December and is maintaining its guidance for the 2025 financial year to June 30, despite Cyclone Sean disrupting operations in December.

MinRes shipped 5.2mn wet metric tonnes (wmt) of iron out of its three Western Australian (WA) iron mines in October-December, up 8pc from a year ago, making it on course to meet its 2025 target of 21.5mn-24.7mn wmt. The company has moved just 9.7mn wmt since the start of the financial year, but plans to meet its target by rapidly ramping up production at its 35mn t/yr Onslow iron mine over the next few months.

MinRes expects Onslow to hit a production rate of 19.2mn wmt/yr in January, up from a rate of 17.6mn wmt in the October-December quarter. The mine will also receive a new transhipper in February, improving MinRes' ability to move iron ore from the site to major export hubs.

Costs at two of MinRes' iron ore mine complexes — Onslow and the 8mn t/yr Yilgarn Hub — were above guidance in October-December. Yilgarn Hub's operating cost over June-December hovered $18/wmt over MinRes' upper guidance of $110/wmt, while Onslow's cost stood $9/wmt over the company's upper guidance of $68/wmt over the same period.

MinRes expects these to fall over coming months, with Yilgarn Hub moving into care and maintenance, and commissioning works being completed at Onslow. But recent weather issues could get in the way.

Cyclone Sean 11U started swerving around off the coast of WA on 18 January, flooding ports and coastal roads over the following two days. The cyclone disrupted operations around Onslow for eight days, which is longer than the four days the company generally plans for, raising the prospect of unexpected costs and delays.

MinRes also needs to fix parts of its private, 150km Onslow haulage road. Water spilled out of floodways and crossed the sealed road as Cyclone Sean passed by the region, damaging the route that links Onslow mine to the Port of Ashburton.

Cyclone Sean disrupted other WA shipping operations in January. The cyclone flooded one of Rio Tinto's railcar dumpers at Port Dampier on 20 January, taking it off line for three to four weeks. Early shipping records indicate Rio Tinto's iron ore shipments out of WA plummeted to 3.05mn dwt over the week to 25 January, less than half its 12-month weekly average.

The Argus iron ore fines 58pc Fe cfr Qingdao price was relatively stable in the October-December quarter, moving between $98/t and $87/t over those three months.

By Avinash Govind

Mineral Resources iron production					mn t
	Oct-Dec '24	Jul-Sep '24	Oct-Dec '23	Jul-Dec '24	Jul-Dec '23
Yilgarn Hub	1.1	1.3	2.1	2.3	3.8
Onslow	4.4	1.9	0.0	4.6	0.0
Pilbara Hub	2.4	2.4	2.7	4.9	5.0
Total (100% basis)	7.9	5.6	4.8	11.8	8.8
Total (MinRes Share)	5.2	4.5	4.8	9.7	8.7
Mineral Resources (MinRes)

Argus Iron Prices $/t

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