Project and operations updateMining and minerals
Fenix reports Beebyn hub transition as reserve supports staged output plan
Fenix reported the start of mining at Beebyn W10, a new hub reserve and lower quarterly shipments during its September-quarter transition.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
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- 2 listed below
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- 2 min
Fenix Resources’ September-quarter report says mining began at Beebyn W10 and the Beebyn Hub became the company’s operating focus. The report contains an internal timing inconsistency on its new 5-million-tonne-a-year crushing and screening plant: the summary calls commissioning post-quarter-end, while the operations section includes the plant among quarter activity. It also says full ramp-up was expected in the current quarter. The report does not allow that conflicting commissioning timing to be resolved, so only the W10 mining start is stated here as an unambiguous quarter milestone.
Fenix mined 907,000 wet metric tonnes in the quarter at a strip ratio of 5.17, processed 1.157 million tonnes and shipped 1.097 million tonnes in 18 vessels. The company attributed reduced shipments to the Beebyn transition and seasonal disruption at Geraldton Port. Its realised group C1 cost was A$81.8 per wet tonne, above the FY27 guidance range; management said it expected unit costs to return within guidance as volume normalised and the plant ramped up. That is a forecast, not an achieved cost outcome.
The project’s reserve basis was set out in a separate 3 September announcement. Fenix reported a 26.9-million-tonne Beebyn Hub Ore Reserve grading 60.0% iron. It comprised 13.1Mt at 61.2% Fe for Beebyn-W11 and 13.8Mt at 58.9% Fe for Stage 1 of Beebyn-W10. The company said the reserve supported more than five years of mine life at then-current production rates. These are reserve estimates and the company’s stated mine-life interpretation, not a guarantee of future output.
That September release also laid out a three-year production plan targeting output of up to 6Mtpa by FY28. Fenix’s October quarterly report maintained FY27 sales guidance of 4.7–5.3Mt and C1 cost guidance of A$70–80 per wet tonne FOB Geraldton. The plan and guidance have different horizons and measures: the three-year target concerns Beebyn Hub production, while FY27 guidance concerns total iron-ore sales and cost. Neither is a report of current production at the target level.
The quarterly report also records A$43.2 million cash at 30 September, with A$17 million in September shipment proceeds received in early October. Fenix said the quarter included a A$20 million second Right to Mine instalment and A$24 million of capital investment in Beebyn Hub and related Weld Range work. The reserve provides the stated resource base for the hub plan; the operating report shows the ramp-up remains in progress and does not establish that its full planned rate has been reached.
Sources
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