PILBARA

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MINING | New Millennium Iron Corp.
AUGUST 2014 | Resource Global Network
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“Although not direct shipping ore in the
strictest sense, the saleable product would
have an iron content of approximately 65%
to meet quality requirements set out by Tata
Steel Europe,” Robert explains.
NML contributed 25 DSO deposits from
its holdings in the development of TSMC,
receiving as consideration a 20% stake in
the company, and is keeping a close eye
on the DSO Project’s progress. The initial
project concept is coming together slower
than planned, Robert admits, but over that
time has evolved into something “bigger and
better”. It now has a supplementary 2mtpa
saleable product stream of crushed and
screened 62% Fe ore that is being marketed
as the construction of the processing plant
progresses.
“Initial trial cargoes of the crushed and
screened ore were shipped to Tata Steel
Europe and China in 2013, and increased
shipping of this material is planned for 2014,”
says Robert. “Once the processing plant
is completed in 2015, the project’s annual
capacity will be at 6mtpa.”
Last year TMSC formed a Joint Venture with
Labrador Iron Mines, an iron ore miner
operating nearby in the Labrador Trough,
and acquired a majority interest in the
company’s Howse iron ore deposit. “TSMC is
expected to realise considerable cost savings
in its mining plan due to the proximity of the
Howse deposit to TSMC’s operations centre,”
Robert explains.
“Furthermore, the addition of the Howse
New Millennium Iron enjoys a strategic partnership with India’s Tata Steel Limited, one
of the world’s top producers with a major presence in Europe
deposit could significantly grow the DSO
Project’s size from the original concept.”
For any resources project to succeed, it is
essential that the companies developing it
cooperate with the native peoples of that
area.
The DSO Project was no different, leading
NML and Tata Steel to forge “excellent
relationships” with the MIR region’s First
Nations groups.
“Along with the technical and geographical
fit between Tata Steel and New Millennium,
our companies were brought together by
a shared vision and similar values,” Robert
remarks.
“Principles such as safety, respect, value,
innovation, credibility and community are all
in the fabric of our partnership and projects,
and have resulted in successful agreements
and cooperation with our affected First
Nations groups.”
The next 12 months will see the completion
and commissioning of the DSO Project’s
processing plant, as well as the completion of
its complex logistics chain.
This requires the ore to be hauled over a
system of railways to a stockpiling and shiploading
facility on the Pointe-Noire side of
the Port of Sept-Îles in Quebec, where TSMC
and NML have invested in a new deep-water,
multi-user dock scheduled for completion in
the fourth quarter of 2014.
“Along with the technical
and geographical fit
between Tata Steel
and New Millennium,
our companies were
brought together by a
shared vision and similar
values”- Robert Patzelt,
CEO, NML
The Taconite Project
NML’s Taconite Project comprises two
deposits in the MIR: the LabMag deposit
owned 80% by NML and 20% by Naskapi
Nation of Kawawachikamach; and the KéMag
deposit owned 100% by NML. The project
has now undergone a successful feasibility
study undertaken and financed jointly by
NML and Tata Steel, who has an option on
the deposits, which confirmed the project as
viable.
“The Taconite Project feasibility study
makes a compelling case for a profitable,
successful, long-term iron ore operation,”
Robert comments. “The favourable geological
and mining characteristics of the deposits
are manifested in the study’s operating cost
estimates, which would place our Taconite
Project among the low-cost pellet producers.”
The feasibility study concluded that the
LabMag deposit has a Measured and
Indicated resource of 4,321 million tonnes at
an 18% DTWR cut-off point and an Inferred
resource of 1,063. The KéMag deposit has a