Vancouver, British Columbia-based Eldorado Gold Corporation announced Tuesday that the company has officially completed its first shipment of iron ore produced from its Vila Nova Mine located in Amapa State, Brazil. Loading of the shipment was completed on November 2, 2010 and the vessel has left the port facility. According to Paul N. Wright, President and CEO of Eldorado, the company has been recently focusing its attention on expanding into iron ore production.
Tuesday's shipment consisted of 45,000 metric tons (mt) of lump ore grading approximately 63 percent Fe that was sold into the Chinese spot market. The next shipment will occur later in November 2010 and will consist of an additional 45,000 mt of sinter ore.
This, and future shipments are part of the 2010 trial mining plan which was developed to test the ore quality, plant throughput and transportation logistics. Vila Nova intends to ship an additional 90,000 mt under this plan.