Hancock Prospecting subsidiary Atlas Iron has released its 2023 financial year (FY23) results.
During this period, the company produced quality ore from its Mount Webber, Sanjiv Ridge and Miralga Creek iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of WA at 10 million wet metric tonnes (wmt) rate. A total of 89 per cent of the wmt were also sold.
While Atlas Iron met its annual mine production target of 10 million wmt, its shipping outcomes for FY23 fell short of company expectations due to port constraints that limited berth access at the Utah multi-user facility.
Financially speaking, the company recorded $427 million in earnings before tax and $180 million in cash was generated from operations.
During FY23, Atlas Iron prioritised advancing drilling programs at the Ridley magnetite project located near Port Hedland and the Mount Bevan magnetite project located in the Central Yilgarn region of WA.
It also concentrated on executing a metallurgical program and ongoing approvals for the McPhee project located in the northeast Pilbara. Optimisation studies are currently underway to ascertain the potential extension of existing operations.
“Unfortunately, due to significant increases in government processing times and multi layers of red tape, we have seen further delays to the McPhee project,” Hancock Prospecting executive chairman Gina Rinehart said.
“This is a project that would deliver an additional $2 billion in additional tax and royalty payments to government, as well as delivering hundreds more high paying jobs.”
Rinehart said while all staff across Atlas’ operations had performed well to deliver a solid result, the Federal Government needs to reduce red tape and streamline the approvals process.
“Shackling industry with more uncertainty via time consuming regulation and duplicated compliance is only damaging Australia as a predictable and reasonable place to invest,” she said.
Atlas Iron has a production target of 10 million wmt set for FY2024.
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