CANBERRA: Argentina’s sole iron ore producer, MCC Sierra Grande in Rio Grande province, will export about 35,000 mt of iron ore in the few days to Australia, the company said Wednesday. “A vessel will load a quantity 30,000 to 35,000 mt of iron ore in the Punta Colorada port,” company attorney Jorge Roa Roa said in a statement. Neither a price or Fe content was disclosed.
According to Roa, “this is the second shipments of 2016.” He did not disclose further information about the previous one, made in February. The mining secretary of Rio Negro province, Juan Pablo Espinola, said in the same statement that a US buyer has made an offer to Sierra Grande to pay an average of $45/mt FOB, but did say the tonnage or when the shipment will occur.
In the beginning of the year, Roa said Sierra Grande planned to reduce iron ore concentrate output to 200,000 mt in 2016, from 400,000 mt in 2015. MCC Sierra Grande also said it would focus exports to the US and would not ship to China due to the high freight costs. It said its cost of production is around six times higher than export prices in the current market.
The company received in May a second subsidy, for Peso 5.6 million ($395,000), from the Rio Negro government to avoid large-scale layoffs and a complete halt of operations. In April, the government provided Peso 6.6 million. The funds are part of a total subsidy of Peso 44 million to be invested throughout the year. MCC Sierra Grande is owned by Metallurgical Corp. of China. The mine has an extraction capacity of about 2.8 million mt/year of iron ore, which is processed into 1.3 million mt/year of concentrate averaging 68.55% Fe.
