China’s 2025 steel demand to fall 1.5% on year, state research institute says
China's steel consumption in 2024 and 2025 is forecast at 863 million metric tons and 850 million tons, respectively.
Advanced Explorations Inc. (TSX-V:AXI) is pleased to announce progress in the ongoing Feasibility Study work for the C-Zone of its Roche Bay Iron Project in Nunavut, northern Canada. The Company has concluded multiple advantages may be drawn from an increased production of up to 5 million tonnes per year of concentrate (65%-66% Fe grade). This represents a 66% increase in production from the previously announced base case (3 million tonnes per year).
The proximity of the ore body to future port facilities, the relatively low infrastructure CAPEX requirements, a simplified production flow sheet, and the recently announced increase in global resources (inferred and indicated as press released April 26) at Roche Bay provide additional operational flexibility and scalability of production:
The Company is also pleased to announce that planning has been completed for this year’s geotechnical drilling program. This drilling is designed to test ground conditions for the foundation, infrastructure locations, and early civil works for the project. These efforts are to support the Feasibility Study, the development of the project infrastructure layout, and for optimization of schedules to advance the Project to production. Once this work is completed, the drill program will then focus on both in-fill drilling and resource expansion. The target for this year at Roche bay is to increase the NI 43-101 compliant resource to at least 750,000,000 million tonnes.
John Gingerich, President and CEO, commented:
“The Company is extremely pleased with the progress of work on the Feasibility Study. The additional production is not only important to our partner, the XinXing Pipes Group, but it is also aligned with the strategic vision of China’s iron ore plan that has target back integration capacity equal to 30% of consumption. With future requirements projected to be one billion tonnes of iron ore per year it is very important that as much capacity as possible is delivered in the initial start up. The Company has not yet determined how this will affect future expansion plans as the results from drilling underway at Tuktu may require additional modifications. The future expansion plans will not affect the delivery of the Feasibility Study with the initial draft still expected in Q4 of this year.”
About Advanced Explorations Inc.
Advanced Explorations Inc., based in Toronto, Ontario, is a resource development company focused on its Roche Bay Iron Ore Project in Nunavut, one of the world’s largest developing iron ore districts. The Roche Bay Project is located proximal to a natural deep water harbour on the east coast of the Melville Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada giving it many logistical advantages. The project has an indicated resource of 323 million tonnes, outlined within a small portion of the potential 140 km of banded iron formation. This iron formation incorporates the Roche Bay deposits, the Company’s Tuktu deposits and other targeted deposits in areas to the north, south and west of the Company’s Roche Bay Project. The preliminary economic assessment from the Roche Bay deposit alone indicates a potential net present value of US $1.1 billion, and the potential for rapid advancement into development of either iron concentrate or high value iron nugget products. The management team has extensive technical, exploration and Canadian Arctic mining expertise to effectively develop the high quality iron ore opportunities on the Melville Peninsula.
