Australian iron ore miner Atlas Iron has announced it shipped a record 1.74 million wet metric tons of iron ore in the quarter ended on December 31, up 25.9 percent compared to the same quarter of 2011.
Atlas stated that iron ore prices recovered during the given quarter as a result of improvements in the Chinese economy. Atlas' average sales price for its standard product was US$106/mt in the December quarter, up from US$98/mt in the September quarter.
In December 2012, Atlas signed three iron ore offtake agreements for a combined 2.2 million mt, while also shipping its first cargo outside China. In the given month, the miner also commenced production at its third Pilbara iron ore mine, Mt Dove.
Additionally, Atlas has expanded its North Pilbara production rate to 8 million mt per year, while it plans to increase the rate to 10 million mt per year by June 2013 and 12 million mt per year by December 2013. The company also remains on track to export between 7.2 million mt and 7.7 million mt per year in the financial year 2012-13.