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Stage 1

Crosslands owns and operates the Jack Hills Iron Ore Project.  Murchison and Mitsubishi each own a 50% interest in Crosslands.

Jack Hills is located 380 kilometres north east of the port city of Geraldton . Mining at Jack Hills commenced in late 2006 and the first shipment of ore from Geraldton was in February 2007.   Ore from the open pit mine is being transported from Jack Hills to the Port of Geraldton by road, using haulage contractors. 

 In the year to 30 June 2008, the Jack Hills mine produced 1.61 million tonnes of ore, of which 1.34 million tonnes was shipped to customers in North Asia .   In December 2007, the operation achieved a significant milestone with the shipment of the one millionth tonne of ore, just ten months after exports of Jack Hills ore began from Geraldton. 

 Following an upgrade of the crushing and screening plant during the June 2008 quarter, reliability improved considerably and by year’s end throughput was consistently averaging 550tph.   Crosslands expects to attain targeted Stage 1 production capacity of 1.8Mtpa during the first quarter of 2009, with the commissioning of additional dedicated belly-dumper road trains. 

 Crosslands also continues to benefit from the unprecedented strength of the international iron ore market, which resulted in the benchmark 2008 price for lump and fines rising 96.5% and 79.88% respectively. All of Crosslands’ Stage 1 output is fully committed at current production levels. 

 The Jack Hills Stage 1 operation produces an extremely high ratio of lump ore to fines material, with lump ore accounting for approximately 77% of all shipments during the year. The average grade of lump ore shipped was 64.7% Fe, while fines ore averaged 62% Fe, underlining the high quality of Jack Hills material.