Name of the Project
Blacksmith iron-ore project.

Location
Pilbara, Australia.

Project Owner/s
Global metal mining company Fortescue obtained a majority interest of 66.23% in iron-ore junior Red Hawk Mining in February 2025, following the acceptance of its off-market takeover offer by Red Hawk’s biggest shareholder, TIO (NZ) Limited (Todd). Under the terms of the offer, Fortescue has proposed to acquire up to 100% of Red Hawk’s shares.

Project Description
The Blacksmith mining lease includes seven deposits: Ajax, Badger, Blackjack, Champion, Delta, Eagle and Paragon. The April 2024 prefeasibility study considered only the development of four deposits – Delta, Paragon, Blackjack and Champion – noting that significant additional value exists in the remaining deposits.

The project includes the construction of a five-million-tonne-a-year (60.5% iron) direct shipping ore operation, with a mine life of 23 years, for total life-of-mine production of 101-million tonnes. Mining will be undertaken by a contract miner using conventional openpit mining methods.

Ore is proposed to be processed through a simple Pilbara standard dry crushing and screening process.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $523-million and an internal rate of return of 31%, and capital payback of 3.3 years from first production.

Capital Expenditure
$217-million, including a 20% contingency and engineering, procurement and construction management costs.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Ausenco (process plant, infrastructure, road and intersection design, capital and operational cost estimates, in conjunction with Orelogy), master schedule, risk assessment, project development and forward work plan); Aerodrome Management Services (design consultants); ERM Australia (geology and mineral resource estimates); FTI Consulting (financial modelling and analysis); Hypercube Scientific (haulage simulation modelling); MGM Bulk (transport and logistics); NeoMet (metallurgy and marketing); Orelogy (mine planning and ore reserve); Pastin (transport logistics); Preston Consulting (approvals and environment consultants); SME Geotechnical (openpit geotechnical assessment); Worley (hydrology and hydrogeology); and WSP (plant site geotechnical engineering).

Contact Details for Project Information
Red Hawk Mining, tel +61 8 9218 2300 or email info@redhawkmining.com.au.