Canada's Champion Iron expects delays to iron ore sales

Canadian iron ore producer Champion Iron expects delays in sales from the Bloom Lake mine in Quebec because of wildfire disruptions to the railway connecting the operations to the port of Sept-Iles.

Wildfires took hold on 28 May, around 300km south of Bloom Lake, resulting in interruptions to the railway since 30 May, Champion said this week.

There is no damage to Champion's infrastructure and the company will use on-site iron ore concentrate stocks to maintain sales, it said. It sold 10.5mn wet metric tonnes of iron ore concentrates in the 2022-23 year ending 31 March, up by 38pc from a year earlier.

Champion is also carrying out a 30-month direct reduction (DR) pellet feed project, with an aim to produce 7.5mn t/yr of DR-quality pellet at 69pc Fe and an alumina and silica content below 1.2pc.

Iron Ore of Canada this week said that the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway will remain suspended until at least 9 June because of wildfires. IOC has also shut operations at its Labrador City mine, concentrator and pellet plant. The company will be rolling out a scheduled annual shutdown during 14-20 June.

By Deepali Sharma