A deadly viral outbreak in East Asia has postponed an emerging mineral producer’s deliveries to the region.
Image Resources NL blamed the coronavirus for delaying heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) shipment to Mainland China by several weeks.
“The only impact to Image from the uncertain economic conditions in China, following the emergence of the coronavirus, has been a delay of a planned February shipment of HMC into March,” the company said in a public statement.
“In January 2020 the sale of a regular monthly scheduled shipment of HMC was completed and discussions are underway with the company’s offtake partners for first quarter follow-on shipments.”
Diversifying away from China
The proponent has started searching for customers outside of China to “minimise geographical risk” and expand marketing opportunities. It will continue to work with project partners to expand the size and frequency of future HMC shipments.
The late shipment came after the proponent reported a record high 35.3 kilo tonnes of HMC production during January 2020 at its Boonanarring Mineral Sands Project, 80km north of Perth. The previous record was 31.4kt back in December 2019.
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“We continue to meet our production targets at Boonanarring which for 2020 are significantly higher than 2019 targets,” Image managing director and CEO Patrick Mutz said.
“Our efforts have been supported by substantially higher HMC production capacity following modifications to the processing plant in 2019 [and] these modifications have now been proven to allow HMC production at levels substantially above original plant design capacity.”
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