CITIC's Sino Iron Project secures approval for mining extension in Western Australia

CITIC Pacific Mining (CPM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed CITIC Limited, has secured approval from the Western Australian government for its Sino Iron Project to continue mining operations, the company announced on June 10. CITIC Limited is a major Chinese conglomerate that operates across various sectors including financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing, and real estate, Mysteel Global notes.

The proposals for the mine continuation at Sino Iron were submitted just last month, after tenement holder Mineralogy – a privately-held company owned by Australian mining and political identity Clive Palmer, had finally agreed to join with CPM in submitting the proposal, the announcement said. However, the submission of the proposals was in fact 20 months overdue due to Mineralogy's previous refusal to support the move.

Early last year, CPM had said that operations at the current approved pits were approaching their limits, and thus the approved pit area needed to be extended in order to continue operations at the same level as in 2023. The tenement holder needs to submit the proposal but Mineralogy had refused, claiming that CITIC had not invested environmental rehabilitation funds for the project, according to local media reports. The dispute was finally settled by the Western Australia Supreme Court.

Mineralogy's refusal meant mining operations at the Sino Iron Project were compromised last year with production reduced by approximately 30%, the company said. This resulted in the park-up of the mining fleet, reduced contractor activity and more than a $65 million cut in annual royalty payments to the state government.

With the new approval, the project is allowed to extend its mining operations and storage facilities and return to previous production levels, but for only an interim period. Further proposals will need to be submitted to get an approval for life-of-mine operations, the company added.

Located on the coast of Western Australia's Pilbara region some 100 km southeast of Karratha, the Sino Iron project is the largest magnetite mining and processing operation in Australia, producing a premium, low-impurity 65% Fe concentrate.

During 2024, the project exported about 14.9 million wet tonnes of concentrate in total to CITIC's special steel plants and other steel mills in Asia, according to company's 2024 annual report. The project is expected to produce 24 million tonnes/year of magnetite concentrate when fully completed.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com