After completing a comprehensive viability assessment, Mineral Resources (MinRes) has decided to cease iron ore shipments from its Yilgarn hub in Western Australia by 31 December 2024.
The miner said the outcome was influenced by several factors, including the limited remaining mine life across five operating mines at the hub and the significant capital cost and lead time required to develop new resources to ensure continuity of supply.
Yilgarn operations will safely ramp down in a staged approach over the next six months, with up to 4 million wet metric tonnes expected to be shipped by the end of 2024. Mining operations will then transition into care and maintenance from early 2025.
“This prudent and difficult decision was not taken lightly and follows years of investment to extend the life of our operations in the Yilgarn,” Managing Director Chris Ellison said.
“With our investment across Western Australia, we have almost 800 vacancies and will redeploy as many of our people as possible to other MinRes operations, including to our low-cost, long-life Onslow iron project.”
While ramping down operations, MinRes will consider future options for its Yilgarn assets, including rehabilitation or disposal. Exploration drilling and environmental studies focused on hematite and magnetite targets will continue into 2025.
MinRes has been an owner-operator in the Yilgarn since 2011.
Source: MinRes