Australia’s MinRes upgrades iron ore haul road

: Metals
25/09/29

Australian iron ore producer Mineral Resources (MinRes) has upgraded a haul road linking its 35mn t/yr Onslow iron ore project to the Port of Ashburton, easing ore shipment challenges.

The company resealed parts of the road, strengthened its pavement and applied a layer of asphalt to it, MinRes said on 29 September. The upgrades will enable the company to resume unconstrained haulage at normal speeds, it added.

MinRes will operate its haul trucks at 60-65 kph when loaded and 70-80 kph when unloaded, after the upgrades. It applied a speed restriction of 45kph to parts of the road throughout the second half of the July 2024-June 2025 financial year.

The company plans to ship 17mn–19mn wet metric tonnes (wmt) out of Onslow in 2025-26 on a 57pc equity basis, up from 8mn wmt in 2024-25.

MinRes decided to upgrade the road in February to fix flood damage sustained during Cyclone Sean in late January. It closed the Onslow haul road for 15 days over January-February because of the cyclone.

But MinRes' Onslow road challenges predate Cyclone Sean. Four road trains loaded with iron ore tipped over over August–November 2024. The company also closed the road for three days in March because Western Australia's occupation safety regulator Worksafe WA issued it a notice about safety risks to its road train operations.

MinRes shipped its first load of Onslow ore to Chinese producer Baowu Steel in May 2024, loading 113,000 wmt of 58.5pc ore onto a ship headed to one of Baowu's mills in Zhangjiang. It has been ramping up the mine to its nameplate capacity since then.

The company shipped ore out of Onslow with an average grade of 58.4pc Fe in 2024-25, up from 58.1pc over the year earlier. Argus' iron ore fines 58pc Fe cfr Qingdao price was last assessed at $90/dry metric tonne (dmt) on 26 September.

By Avinash Govind

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25/11/05

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Australia’s MinRes upgrades iron ore haul road

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