Gindalbie Metals LTD

Iron Ore – Changing Dynamics
The Australian iron ore industry is on the verge a major transformation, driven by a combination of booming global demand and diminishing stocks of high-grade ore.

World consumption of iron ore is driven by the global steel industry and grows on average by 10% per annum, with the main consumers being China, Japan, Korea, the United States and the European Union. The major producers of iron ore include China, Brazil, Australia, India, and Russia.

The major growth constraints for the global iron ore industry are:
•    the position of the iron ore relative to market;
•    the cost of rail infrastructure to get it to market; and
•    the energy cost required to do so.

The growth in demand for iron ore over the past decade has principally been driven by the Chinese economy. During the first half of this decade, China’s steel consumption grew at a rate of 1.5-2.5 times GDP driven by rapid industrialization and urbanization.

Hematite
Traditionally, the Australian iron ore industry has been based on the mining, production and export of high-grade hematite ores which currently account for approximately 96% of Australia’s iron ore production.

High-grade hematite is often referred to as “Direct Shipping Ore” or “DSO” because it is mined and beneficiated using a relatively simple crushing and screening process before being exported for use in steel mills.

Magnetite
Magnetite ore has lower iron content and must be upgraded to make it suitable for steelmaking.

Magnetite ore is suitable for processing into iron ore pellets for use in modern steel production and currently accounts for approximately 50% of global iron ore production. The magnetic properties of magnetite enable it to be readily refined into an iron ore concentrate.

While magnetite is generally a lower-grade deposit, it is globally accepted as a viable and high-quality feedstock for the production of premium quality, low impurity steel.

The processing route for magnetite requires crushing, screening, grinding, magnetic separation, filtering and drying. The final product is a high iron grade magnetite concentrate (+65% Fe), with typically very low impurities.
Further processing involves the agglomeration and thermal treatment of the concentrate to produce pellets, which can be used directly in a blast furnace or direct reduction steel-making plant.

The additional processing cost for the production of magnetite concentrate can be offset by the premium price which it attracts from steel mills because of the high iron content compared to benchmark DSO hematite products.

Magnetite – the Future of Australian Iron Ore…
Traditionally, Australia has associated “iron ore” with DSO quality hematite, which underpinned by emergence of the Pilbara region as one of the world’s great iron ore provinces. As a result, magnetite has been greatly misunderstood and undervalued by the market.

Because it has lower iron content than hematite, magnetite has been regarded in Australia as a less attractive proposition.

However, the availability of cheaper energy combined with unprecedented global iron ore and steel demand is changing this perspective.

Magnetite projects today are capable of producing high-quality concentrate grading up to 68-69% Fe, which is higher grade than many of the Pilbara hematite lump and fines ores currently being produced.

Also, it is well established that hematite grades are declining globally and impurity levels are rising while the demand for quality, premium steel from China and India is continuing to increase. With hematite grades declining, high-grade magnetite concentrate is becoming an increasingly sought-after product.

Steel mills are now buying increasing volumes of high-grade, low impurity magnetite concentrate to supplement declining supplies of high-grade lump ore, in order to maintain the quality of their final product.