Rio Tinto stockpiles 2 million tons of iron ore at Simandou for November shipment

Mining company Rio Tinto has accumulated 2 million tons of high-quality iron ore at the Simandou project in Guinea for shipment of the first batch in mid-November. This was reported by Reuters with reference to sources.

In particular, in its third-quarter production report, Rio Tinto said that SimFer, one of the two mines in the Simandou project, had accumulated 1.5 million tons of ore, with the first raw materials loaded onto the railway in October.

The first shipment is expected to be delivered to China, sources said.

Rio Tinto initially plans to route exports through infrastructure owned by its partner, the Singapore-Chinese consortium Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS), whose port construction is nearing completion.

WCS, which operates another Simandou mine, also began stockpiling ore in September, starting the race for early market share.

Simandou is expected to supply 120 million tonnes of ore annually when it reaches full capacity, with SimFer accounting for half of that volume. The latter holds a mining concession for blocks 3 and 4 in the south of the deposit, while WCS holds blocks 1 and 2 in the north.

Tom Price, head of commodities at Panmure Liberum, believes that annual production of 120 million tons by 2028 will increase seaborne ore supplies by 8-9%. Earlier, Rio Tinto CFO Peter Cunningham said that the launch of the deposit in Guinea is likely to drive some suppliers with higher raw material costs out of the market.

Earlier this year, the Guinean government expected the Simandou iron ore project to reach maximum production in its second year of operation.