Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with IronClad Mining Limited (ASX:IFE) Executive Chairman, Ian Finch. Lelde Smits: Hello I’m Lelde Smits for the Finance News Network and joining me today from iron ore development company, IronClad Mining Limited
(ASX:IFE) is Executive Chairman, Ian Finch. Ian welcome back to FNN.
Ian Finch: Thank you very much, lovely to be here.
Lelde Smits: Now last time we spoke you detailed plans to move IronClad into production this year at your Wilcherry Hill project in South Australia, are you on track?
Ian Finch: Absolutely, and as we speak there are people on site who are marking out and clearing the first pits, clearing away the vegetation and all ready to dig the initial pits, and start stockpiling the ore. So the answer to that is yes.
Lelde Smits: And are all necessary approvals in place?
Ian Finch: Indeed they are and we had our final approval, which was the port approval came through in April of last month, and that was fast tracked thanks to the South Australian Government. And yes, all the mining approvals are in place, everything that needs to be there is there.
Lelde Smits: And what are IronClad’s plans for a ramp up?
Ian Finch: Well that’s a very important question Lelde. The ramp up is going to be from our one million tonne start-up, which is merely just a small amount of DSO (direct shipping ore) magnetite to get us going. But then we go through a series of stages over the next four to five years, to get to our 10 to 12 million tonnes per annum export target. And that’s going to be the exciting thing from now on, not just getting started but ramping up to those big tonnages.
Lelde Smits: Now in the first quarter, IronClad completed infill drilling at the Weednanna prospect, part of Wilcherry Hill, what were the results?
Ian Finch: That’s a sort of formality really. Before you start mining, you need to know what your initial first two benches are going to look like - you know your first 12 metres or so of mining is going to look like. And that is not covered by the initial drilling. So we put some infill drilling in there, just to make sure that the continuity of the ore body is how we think it is. The net result of that is that there are swings and roundabouts, as there always are in the weathered zone of any ore body. We gained some that we didn’t expect and we lost some we thought was there. But it’s very much a swings and roundabouts game, it’s more to decide on your mining schedule and how you’re going to go about it.
Lelde Smits: And what are your plans for further drilling?
Ian Finch: That’s quite extensive in a number of ways. Of course we’ll be doing grade control drilling, which is a very tight pattern drilling within the pit areas themselves. But of course we’re starting small and we have a lot more ore out there which we have to identify. So with Wilcherry Hill, we’ll be drilling the Ultima Dam West body and that will be proving up additional ore there. We’ll also be looking to start drilling as soon as possible, the Hercules deposit about 12 kilometres to the east of us. That’s very important to us because that is the future of the Company and has a great potential for not only magnetite, but hematite deposits as well.
Lelde Smits: Taking a closer look at the Hercules project, what contribution do you anticipate Hercules will have to your output?
Ian Finch: Well it’s almost limitless from that point of view inasmuch that we know it’s already 10 kilometres long, we know it has both hematite and magnetite ore underneath it. And the reason we know that is because, we actually drilled the first two kilometres of that 10 kilometre body to a reasonable depth, but we can always go deeper. So depending on how deep you go, there’s probably 1.5 to 2.0 billion tonnes of ore sitting there at Hercules.
Lelde Smits: The South Australian Government last month gave the green light for IronClad’s development of port facilities at Lucky Bay, what do your plans involve?
Ian Finch: The port itself is quite small but then we’re talking about transhipping. We only need vessels with sort of four or five metre draft. What we will be doing is extending the port backwards some - I’m not sure of the distance, probably 50 metres or so and building in there a handling facility with gantry cranes and so forth. All of this is about getting the ore on the ship much quicker, or as quickly as we possibly can because as you would know, that the sooner you load your ship the less the overall cost per tonne is.
Lelde Smits: Finally Ian, where would you like to see IronClad Mining by the end of this year?
Ian Finch: Well certainly we’d like to see it in strong production, uncomplicated production making lots of money. I think that’s clear, but I’d also like to see us bringing some of the future production forward if we can, and that’s certainly got possibilities. I’d like to see us well into the drilling of Hercules and hopefully we would have some good news on the hematite direct shipping ore there. So there are lots to look forward to, before the end of this year certainly.
Lelde Smits: Ian Finch, thanks for the update to IronClad’s progress to production.
Ian Finch: Thanks Lelde, it’s a pleasure.
Ends
