Japanese trading house Mitsui has made an $86 million deal with
Carpentaria Resources over the Hawsons iron project southwest of Broken
Hill, New South Wales.
In return for a 2Mt/y option on
Carpentaria’s high-quality Hawsons Supergrade product, Mitsui will
contribute around 20 per cent ($5.4 million) of the project’s bankable
feasibility study (BFS) cost and $81 million towards debt funding for
construction of a new magnetite mine.
The Hawsons project is a
joint venture (JV) between Carpentaria, which owns 68.7 per cent, and
Pure Metals, which owns 31.3 per cent. The companies are aiming for
10Mt/y of iron ore production from the project, which has sent a mining
lease application to the NSW Government. The BFS is one of the final
stages before full production and is expected to be completed within the
next 12–15 months.
In April, the project secured Major Project Status
from the Australian Government, becoming one of 13 projects in the
country to do so. The project is expected to create around 1200
construction jobs in the region and a further 500 jobs over its 20-year
mine life, according to a statement from Senator Michaelia Cash,
Minister for Jobs and Innovation, Western Australia (also from April).
Carpentaria
managing director Quentin Hill said, “Mitsui’s record speaks for itself
as one of the largest and most astute international investors in
Australia’s resources industry.
“This investment validates the
quality of the Hawsons Supergrade product and its ability to satisfy the
demanding needs of customers in the high-value, high-growth iron ore
markets of direct reduction iron and pellet feed.”