From Reuters:
China’s CITIC Pacific said it was moving into the initial production phase at its $8 billion iron ore project in Australia, following years of delays at one of China’s costliest offshore mining developments.
Already some four years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, commissioning of the first of the project’s two production lines has been going on since July, CITIC said in an e-mailed statement.
“We are now moving into the production stage,” it said.
The development aims to produce up to 24 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate annually. The material will be used by CITIC Pacific’s own steel plants and also sold to other steel producers in China.
CITIC hopes to expand that output to as much as 70 million tonnes though is so over budget one wonders where the ceiling really lies. Either way, it’s more iron ore.
