Australian iron ore miner Strike Resources has raised $5 million through a share placement to secure long lead equipment for its Paulsens East iron ore mine and Apurimac iron ore project. The miner targets first production at Paulsens East later this year, Kallanish notes.

Strike Resources will a make final investment decision (FID) by the September quarter, according to the company. The miner has already placed an order for 13 Ultra Quad road trains for exclusive use at Paulsens East and will use part of the funds raised to secure various items of equipment related to transport, communications and mineral processing.

Strike is targeting 1.5 million tonnes/year of direct shipping iron ore (DSO) production from Paulsens East from mid-2021, with approximately 1.1m t/y of this to be 62% Fe lump. Strike said in 2019 the mine has a JORC Resource of 9.1mt at 63.4% Fe content within a 3km strike length.

In addition, the placement funds will be used to double annual sales of high-grade DSO from its Apurimac iron ore project in Peru from 125,000t to 250,000t. It is now targeting a shipment of between 30,000t and 35,000t of 65% Fe iron ore in July 2021 with an estimated fob cost of about $70-80/tonne.