KEY POINTS

•      Safety performance continued to improve, with a 12-month rolling Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) maintained at zero and a Total Reportable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) of 2.39 at March 2021. This represents an improvement of 13% over the quarter.

•      Mining Services production volumes for the quarter was consistent with the prior corresponding period (Q3 FY20) (pcp) and in-line with expectations.

•      Iron ore shipments totalled 4.1 million wet metric tonnes (wmt), consistent with Q2 FY21 and up over 51% on pcp. During the past six months MRL has produced 10.1m wmt but have shipped 8.5m wmt. MRL has experienced haulage constraints caused by a shortage of truck drivers resulting from the unplanned sudden state border closures, implemented following COVID-19 outbreaks around the country. This shortage has meant that, on average, hauling capacity of approximately 10,000 wmt per day otherwise available to MRL was sitting idle. FY21 guidance of 19.5m wmt to 20.5m wmt was based on an expected increase in shipments aligning with production. It is not clear when these haulage issues will be resolved and, therefore, iron ore shipment guidance for FY21 is now expected to be in the 17.4m to 18.0m wmt range.

•      Total iron ore production during the quarter of 4.9m wmt was consistent with Q2 FY21 and up more than 44% on pcp, in line with mine plans. Crushed iron ore stockpiles on site at 31 March 2021 increased 1.3m wmt to 1.4m wmt since 30 June 2020.

•      The average realised iron ore price was US$144.8 per dry metric tonne (dmt), which is 5% higher than the previous quarter.

•      The first iron ore shipments from the 5mtpa Wonmunna Iron Ore Mine commenced during the quarter, following the safe and rapid development of the mine.

•      During the quarter, MRL commissioned three crushing plants, including a NextGen 2 plant at Mount Whaleback, the Wonmunna plant and another at a third-party site. The combined capacity of these plants is 31mtpa.

*Utah Point Hub consists of Iron Valley and Wonmunna.

Yilgarn Hub

Ore mined was 2.5m wmt during the quarter, an improvement on the prior quarter following the arrival of additional mining fleet at the end of Q2 and the reallocation of equipment to improve productivities across the pits.

In order to simplify production and shipment planning, during the quarter the decision was taken to focus production for the short to medium-term on fines ore. The resulting crusher conversions along with abnormally high weather delays, wet ore constraints and long-road haulage from the northern pits all negatively impacted on production during the quarter.

Total shipped tonnes decreased from the previous quarter as a result of crushing and haulage constraints along with train delays and the cancellation of two trains because of a bushfire near Kwinana.

Utah Point Hub
An improvement in overall production was facilitated by the successful commissioning of the Wonmunna plant. The Iron Valley crushing plant performed well, with a healthy stockyard inventory.

Source: Mineral Resources