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.
'000 wet metric tonnes |
Q3
FY21 |
Q2
FY21 |
Q3
FY20 |
PRODUCED |
SHIPPED |
PRODUCED |
SHIPPED |
PRODUCED |
SHIPPED |
Yilgarn Hub |
2,698 |
2,494 |
2,955 |
2,742 |
1,752 |
1,574 |
Utah
Point Hub* |
2,244 |
1,623 |
2,144 |
1,622 |
1,684 |
1,323 |
TOTAL IRON ORE |
4,942 |
4,117 |
5,099 |
4,364 |
3,436 |
2,897 |
*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 |