Australia’s newest iron ore producer has won the Digger Award at this year’s Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie.
Atlas Iron’s Pardoo project in the Pilbara began producing in December last year, and the company plans to boost output to 12 million tonnes a year by 2012 after its Wodgina mine starts production.
The company also announced earlier this week the maiden resource estimate for four of its six prospects at the Mt Webber project was 32.62 million tonnes in the inferred category.
Atlas managing director said that the company has received strong interest from Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Thai parties to buy ore from its Wodgina operation.
“We are seeing a lot of demand for our product,” he said.
“We are seeing near record seaborne iron ore imports into China. That alone tells you there is a lot of demand for the product.”
Other Diggers and Dealers awards included the Dealers Award and the Best Emerging Company Award, which were awarded to Queensland coal mining operative Ken Talbot and Minemakers Ltd, respectively.