Hawsons Iron has secured Myponie Point Port to export its ore by signing a legally binding agreement with Flinders Port Holdings last week.
The move means once the mining company gets into full operation it has a shipping port available, with the new agreement formalising the relationship between the two companies who will cooperate on the potential development and operation of a greenfield port at Myponie Point on South Australia’s eastern Spencer Gulf.
Bryan Granzien, Managing Director at Hawsons, said the new agreement would see Flinders Port Holdings construct, own and operate the proposed Myponie Point Port and reduce Hawsons Iron Project’s capital requirements while allowing them to participate in future growth as the Port’s cornerstone customer.
Flinders Port’s Chief Executive Officer, Stewart Lammin, said the agreement reflected the Port’s ongoing commitment to large-scale export projects from South Australia by leveraging existing infrastructure and exploring the development of new ports where necessary.
“This approach at Myponie Point could deliver the best of both worlds through a lower output start-up operation at a lower capital cost and a clear pathway forward to expand production to 20 million tonnes per annum using the direct-to-port underground slurry pipeline,” Mr Granzien said.
This agreement is a step closer to Hawsons providing a green steel export alternative for steel manufacturers.
The steel industry accounts for seven percent of carbon emissions, with up to 70% of the world’s steel produced in oxygen blast furnaces.
Each tonne of processed steel currently equates to about two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to human-caused global warming and accounts for 79% of the greenhouse gases in the Earth’s air.
The good news is, Hawsons’ orebody near Broken Hill is deposited in soft siltstone, which means the concentrate can be extracted using lower energy technologies.
Instead of using oxygen blast furnaces, the company is examining how to process its ore using direct reduced iron processing.
Hawsons is currently examining the best direct reduced iron (DRI) processes for the ore and is evaluating the use of crushing, high-pressure grinding rolls, ball milling, magnetic separation, flotation cells and agitation tanks in the processing.
Magnetite is the key to the steel industry’s decarbonisation, said a Hawsons spokesperson.
Hawsons Iron will hold its annual general meeting this week where they will consider appointing directors David Woodall and Tony McGrady to the company and re-electing Paul Cholakos as a Director.
Shareholders will also consider raising more revenue by issuing 71,500,000 unlisted share options.
An unlisted option enables the company to offer shares at a set price for a specified term.
We will report on the outcome of the annual general meeting soon.
