Australia Darwin ships first iron ore cargo in 6 years

Iron ore will leave the Northern Territory (NT) port of Darwin this week, the first shipment since 2015 as persistently strong iron ore prices drive more marginal iron ore producers into production across Australia.

Australian mining firm NT Bullion plans to ship around 30,000t of lump from Darwin this week. It owns the 2mn-3mn t/yr Frances Creek mine in the NT and while mining has restarted, most of this shipment is from stocks left from the last operator of the mine. Frances Creek closed in 2015 when iron ore prices fell below $50/t cfr China, causing its owner trading firm Noble to write off $93mn in operating losses.

This will be the first shipment of iron ore from Darwin since 2015, although the port does regularly ship iron and steel scrap to destinations including India and Taiwan. Darwin's shipments of iron ore peaked at around 2mn t in the year to 30 June 2014 before weak prices closed all the iron ore mines in the NT. High iron ore prices have led to a rush of investment into the NT, with Vietnamese steel producer Hoa Phat acquiring the Roper Valley iron ore project this month.

There have been some iron ore shipments from the NT this year, with Nathan River Resources using a trans-shipping site on the Gulf of Carpentaria to load ore from its 1.5mn-2mn t/yr Roper Bar mine.

The ICX has been above $100/t since for more than a year, prompting several small and medium enterprises to push forward with new mining operations or with reopening those shut during lower price environments. Over 6mn t/yr of iron ore mining capacity has come on stream in Australia over the past year, with more planned for this year and over 110mn t/yr in the pipeline, driven by record high iron ore prices.

Australian mining firms are also moving forward with iron ore development plans outside of Australia, including at Akora's 62.8pc Fe Bekisopa fines project in Madagascar. Sundance Resources is also trying to regain control of the Mbalam-Nabeba iron ore project in Congo and Cameroon through the International Chamber of Commerce.

Argus assessed the ICX iron ore price at $212.75/dmt cfr Qingdao on a 62pc Fe basis yesterday, up from $183.15/dmt on 1 June but down from a high of $235.55/dmt on 12 May. The latest price is 25-30pc higher compared with $167.45/t on 1 April and $159.90/t on 31 December last year.

By Jo Clarke

Iron ore prices $/t