The two deposits, Chloe and Willy, are within Atlas’s Olivia target area and contain sought-after direct-shipping ore, which requires no processing. Atlas said the deposits were at or near surface. They required further drilling to define their extent.

The company emphasised very low phosphorus levels within the targets, which bodes well for future blending opportunities to reduce the contaminants within the Pardoo products.
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Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third- largest mining company, faces the prospect of further industrial action by train drivers at its iron ore operations in Western Australia after the first strike today in more than 16 years.

Today’s 12-hour strike, in which 11 out of 12 drivers took part, was “only the commencement of the campaign,” Gary Wood, secretary of the Western Australian division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union, said today. Deliveries from Rio’s mines weren’t affected today by the strike, said Gervase Greene, a spokesman for the company’s iron ore unit.
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BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian -miners, said that iron ore shipments to China had not been disrupted despite a warning from one of Australia’s smaller miners that Chinese customers had asked for shipments to be delayed.

Shares in Mount Gibson Iron, the Australian iron ore producer, dropped 24 per cent to 87.5 cents after it said a number of customers had requested shipments be delayed into next year.
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Millions of tonnes of iron ore could soon be on its way to the Scunthorpe Corus steelworks from Canada.

The company’s owner Tata Steel has bought itself a stake in the Millennium Iron Range and a potential supplier of more than nine billion tonnes of ore.

The deal is worth 22.6-million Canadian Dollars.

The range, located along Canada’s Labrador Trough, is said to be the largest magnetite resource in the world.
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A survey of China’s mining dumps, triggered by a deadly landslide last month, is expected to be completed by the end of October, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Sunday.

The survey was launched following the landslide at an unlicensed iron ore tailing dump in Xiangfen, north China’s Shanxi Province, which killed at least 267 people.

The results of the survey would be used to work out a plan to make better use of the existing dumps, according to the ministry. Read more » »

Karara Iron Ore Project is being developed through a 50:50 Joint Venture between Gindalbie Metals Limited and Chinese steel producer Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation (AnSteel).

Iron ore mine project 225 km east of Geraldton. Invesment for development of iron ore mine exploration $18 billion.

The project includes magnetite and hematite resources. The magnetite resource is said to be 1.85 Bt and has an initial reserve of 522 Mt. First production of 8Mtpa is scheduled for 2010.
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Australian iron ore mining exploration annoyed with plans to delays of delivery iron ore mine from Australian.

Postponement plans of delivery iron ore mine from Australian reported on by Australian Company, Mount Gibson.

In a potentially alarming sign for the Australian economy, the company said demand in China had slowed due to ” reductions in steel production and the current significant build-up of iron ore stockpiles at Chinese ports”.
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Anglo-Russian miner Aricom Plc needs $1 billion in external funds for an iron ore project to supply resource-hungry China, it said on Wednesday, sending its shares lower in a tough global environment for borrowers.

Shares of Aricom, a member of the UK’s FTSE 250 mid-range stocks index, pared losses to 8.8 percent by 1505 GMT after earlier plunging 38 percent to a record low on the release of a feasibility study into the project in Russia’s far east, where construction will start next year.
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Four big state-owned Chinese steel makers have agreed to cut production by as much as 20 percent, perhaps until year-end, in an effort to put a floor under falling product prices, a Chinese industry official said on Wednesday.

The four - Shougang Group, Hebei Iron & Steel Group, Anyang Iron & Steel and Shandong Iron & Steel - agreed this week to reduce output by 10 percent to 20 percent, said the official, Zou Jian, chairman of the China Metallurgical Mines Association.
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Investment Advisor SP Tulsian is of the view that one can remain invested in Tata Steel with long term perspective.

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “We have been seeing metal stocks softening in the last 15 days or so because the prices of (hot rolled coils) HR and long products both have fallen by about 22-25%. With the global meltdown even when people are talking of recession in US and Europe, I do not think the prices will really improve. Read more » »