The shipment of 52,425 tonnes of premium high-grade lump iron ore fulfills part of GWR’s offtake agreement with Hong Kong trader, Pacific Minerals.

GWR has lined up a second shipment with the cargo ship MV Marinicki, set to depart late this month.

GWR expects the haulage issues to be more settled by early April as it is addressing issues such as unplanned maintenance, road closures due to weather and storm damage to the haulage transfer station.

The company reported that it was at 90 per cent full production at C4, following a 30 per cent increase in ore tonnes mined from January to February.

“Despite a number of challenges, we are confident we can capitalise on the current buoyant iron ore price, with ore crushing now at 90 per cent of full production and challenges with our haulage fleet expected to be addressed through the latter part of March and early April,” Lyons said.

GWR has advanced its plans for a pit expansion for the stage two of the C4 operation as it aims to increase mining, crushing and haulage.

The company has shortlisted multiple contracting partners to develop the stage two project.

GWR engages Alliance Partner Pilbara Resource Group for stage one of the C4 operations in a 70:30 profit sharing agreement.

This covers the first one million tonnes of C4’s mineral resource estimate of 21.6 million tonnes at 60.7 per cent iron.

The C4 operation is part of GWR’s Wiluna West direct shipping ore (DSO) iron ore development project.

GWR has received mining approvals for large scale mining operations (up to seven million tonnes a year) over Wiluna West’s initial mine life of 10 years.