Australian iron ore miner Atlas Iron has announced that it has entered into a binding heads of agreement to acquire the remaining 25 percent of the iron ore rights on the Daltons joint venture tenements it does not already own from Australia-based mining company Haoma Mining.
The iron ore rights that Atlas has agreed to acquire for A$33 million are located on the northern part of Atlas' wider Mount Webber direct shipping ore project in Western Australia. Daltons has a probable reserve of 22.8 million mt at 58.3 percent Fe.
The commissioning of the Mt Webber project will contribute to Atlas' plan to increase its total output to 12 million mt per year by June 2013. Atlas also plans to begin transporting iron ore by rail to achieve the annual production capacity of 46 million mt by 2017.