JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Perth-based Fortescue Metals has started mining at its Christmas Creek iron-ore deposit, in the Pilbara region.

“The start of mining at Christmas Creek will be of great benefit to Fortescue’s overall operation, as it provides enhanced flexibility to the mine plan, as well as giving the marketing team more product blending options,” said Fortescue head of operations Paul Hallam.

Under the mining operations timetable, waste material would be removed over the next month, before mining of the exposed ore body began in late March. It was expected that mined ore would be available for transporting to the Cloudbreak ore processing facility, during May.

Ore from the new operations would be blended with product from the established Cloudbreak mine.

The company stated that the Christmas Creek mined ore would initially be transported by road train to the Cloudbreak ore processing facility, but in the longer term, it was planned that a rail spur line would be completed between the two sites, and that Christmas Creek would become part of the integrated port, rail, and mine system.

Fortescue stated on Tuesday that in total, the Christmas Creek area represented a significantly larger deposit than Cloudbreak, holding a current reserve estimate of about 997-milllion tons, compared with Cloudbreak at 628-million tons.

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