News

June 17, 2009

Cashed-Up Atlas Iron Powers On Towards A Production Target Of Twelve Million Tonnes Of Iron Ore Per Year

By Our Man in Oz

Phase one of the China-driven resources boom might have ended last year, but someone forgot to tell David Flanagan at Atlas Iron. Over the past seven months Flanagan has orchestrated a remarkable five-fold increase in the share price of the rapidly-emerging Australian iron ore company that he runs. From a low of just A40.5 cents on November 20th, when gloom gripped the mining world, and Atlas was suffering boardroom blues, the stock has soared to a high this week of A$2.00, and appears to be on track to reclaim its all-time high of A$4.37. Driving Atlas is a combination of discovery, location and luck. The discovery involves oodles of high grade iron in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The location is all about being close to a port and a disused processing facility, and the luck comes in when small companies benefit when the big boys of mining fall foul of their customers.

In reverse order, the big boy brawl is the nasty, name-calling spat, which followed Rio Tinto’s decision to hop into BHP Billiton’s bed rather than cosy up to China. For smaller iron ore miners that decision has been a Godsend with China reported to be on the prowl for alternative sources of supply, and fresh investment/takeover opportunities. The disused processing facility is that which was mothballed by the tantalum miner, Talison Minerals, which Minesite’s Man in Oz reported on last March...