MLG commissioned two crushing and screening plants at the 50 million tonne per annum Christmas Creek facility in 2018, providing its services since then.

MLG founder and managing director Murray Leahy said the company was proud to hit its targets ahead of time.

“We are very pleased to have reached an outcome which is in the best interests of both parties,” Leahy said.

“There is a strong demand for crushing services across the mining industry and, while Fortescue currently does not have the need for additional crushing capacity at Christmas Creek, we are confident of redeploying our company-owned assets into new opportunities in the new term.”

The relationship between MLG and Fortescue has lasted over six years in various capacities.

MLG’s crushing and screening operations account for 20 per cent of the company’s revenue for the 2021 financial year, worth around $241 million.

Despite MLG’s availability to provide its services this financial year, the volume of material to be processed across its contracts has been reduced as a result of production constraints.

On June 4, the company revealed these impacts were expected to linger into the second half of 2021.

“We anticipate this will negatively impact the crushing and screening revenue in the first half of financial year 2022,” MLG stated.

“Despite this and given the company’s current pipeline… the board expects the overall impact of this to be mitigated in the second half of financial year 2022.”

The company’s pipeline includes contracts with Northern Star, Norton Gold Fields and Mincor, worth $12 million, $14 million and $3 million, respectively, per year.