GWR ships first iron ore from C4 deposit

Australia's Golden West Resources (GWR) plans to ship in late January the first iron ore from the C4 deposit of its Wiluna West iron ore project in Western Australia, Kallanish notes. The ore is being stockpiled at the Geraldton port, ahead of shipping on the 84,000-deadweight-tonne “Panafrican” later this month.

GWR started operating the 1 million tonnes/year iron ore project with its partner Pilbara Resource Group (PRG) in December. The ore has an average grade of 60.7% Fe.

The C4 development will open up the entire 131mt of high-grade Wiluna West iron ore resource for exploitation, according to the company. It is 1.4km long and contains a combined direct shipping ore (DSO) hematite JORC mineral resource estimate of 21.6mt at 60.7% Fe content. GWR plans to mine at a rate of 7m t/y during the initial ten-year mining life.

In addition, GWR also announced it is completing a review of the entire Wiluna West project, starting with evaluation and modelling, to increase the production tonnage of the C4 deposit.