Austeel Mill Project

Austeel is developing a world-class steel operation capable of competing with the low cost high quality producers in the world.  Austeel’s extensive iron ore deposit in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia will produce a very high quality iron concentrate which can be further processed into direct reduced iron for conversion into final steel products.

The project comprises:

Western Australia

• iron ore mining, beneficiation and shipping

Steel Mill Site (currently finalising negotiations on the Site location)

• iron ore importing
• iron ore pelletising
• production of direct-reduced, hot-briquetted iron (DRI or HBI)
• production of steel by electric furnaces
• production of steel slabs, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and galvanised coil for sale
• exporting of finished products

The basic process is one of conversion of iron ore to steel by melting in a furnace (MELTSHOP), refining of the molten steel followed by rolling the hot steel into thick and thin slabs (CASTING BAY), followed by further treatments (HOT STRIP MILL and COLD COMPLEX) for the production of several different finished products for export.

The project will be developed in three phases.

• Phase 1 will start construction in Year 1 and start production in Year 3, with capacity for finished products of 4.55 million tonnes, comprising slabs, finished steel flat and coated products and some sales of HBI. This phase of the project will also establish the infrastructure for ports, water, gas and electricity required for the next phases of the project.
• Phase 2 will start construction in Year 3 and start production in Year 5. It will add 5 million tonnes of slab capacity, with associated capacity for mining, pellets, DRI and crude steel. After Phase 2 the project will have sales of finished products of 9.55m tonnes.
• Phase 3 will start construction in Year 5 and will double the size of the project at that time. After Phase 3 the project will have sale of 19.1m tonnes, as shown in the following table.