Current Activities
With more than 1100 tenements amounting to over 90,000 km2 across Western Australia, Fortescue's Exploration continues apace at multiple project sites.
Less than 35 kilometres from Fortescue’s flagship Chichester Hub
operation, 2.01 billion tonnes of high grade Brockman resource has been
discovered at Nyidinghu. With further exploration upside, the Nyidinghu
find provides expansion flexibility and blending opportunities with the
Chichester Hub.
The Serenity and Sheila Valley prospect areas, located west of Solomon
and mainly west of the Rio rail line are considered to be Stage 1 of the
Central Pilbara Project. The current resource here stands at 1.3 Bt,
all inferred. Drilling rigs are working in these areas to expand the
resource, support estimation of higher categories of resources and to
provide samples for metallurgical testing. Once developed it is expected
that these resources will be exported through the Pilbara Port at
Anketell Point
A maiden resource of 625 million tonnes has been declared at the Western
Hub, 50 kilometres to the west of the Solomon Hub. This resource base
will grow over time as more drilling is conducted and will underwrite
Fortescue’s plans to proceed with the rail expansions and construction
of the new Pilbara Port at Anketell Point.
Fortescue has commenced drill testing of several other targets during 2011. This will include the Delphine area where
several targets are ready for drill testing with the first area already being drilled, two areas at Wyloo and
others at Prairie Heights and Snowy Mountain.
Fortescue's Northstar magnetite project is located just 100 kilometres
south of the Fortescue Herb Elliot port facility at Port Hedland and approximately 25 kilometres east of the Fortescue rail line. The Glacier
Valley joint venture between Fortescue and Baosteel Australia hosts an
Inferred Resource of 1.23 Bt of magnetite mineralisation. Immediately to
the north, North Star (100 per cent Fortescue) has 312mt of Indicated and 921mt of Inferred Resources. An infill drilling program designed to increase the resource, particularly in the higher categories is nearing completion.