PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore miner Gindalbie Metals on Tuesday told shareholders that further cost cutting measures would be implemented at the company, including a reduction in administrative overheads and the elimination of committee fees payable to directors.
Gindalbie said that it was also reviewing its portfolio of exploration tenements, and would be divesting of those it believed to have little prospectivity.
The miner took the decision in light of the current market conditions and production levels at its Karara operation, in Western Australia, as well as the company’s low share price.
During the quarter ended December, magnetite concentrate production from the Karara project increased by 12% on the previous quarter, to 1.4-million tonnes. A total of 42 shipments were completed during the quarter under review, totaling 2.51-million tonnes of combined magnetite concentrate and hematite direct shipping ore. This was compared with the 35 shipments made in the previous quarter.
Gindalbie was continuing its focus on optimising the Karara plant, and reducing operating costs, with the miner saying that its focus was on low-cost options to debottleneck the plant, considering the significant fall in iron-ore prices.
As a result, capital expenditure on the debottlenecking operations would be kept to a minimum, unless the expenditure has already been approved.