Pathway to 10 million tonnes per year – insights from Fenix Resources

After a transformational 2025, Midwest iron ore producer, Fenix Resources, is gearing up for a strong 2026 – a year which marks the start of its plan to deliver 15 million tonnes by 2028.

This plan has been cemented on the back of a six-year streak, which saw Fenix smash its production targets on a string of major projects.

“When we started production at the Iron Ridge Mine in 2020, the plan had been to operate that at 1.5 million tonnes per annum, but in 2025 we achieved a run rate of 4 million tonnes per annum and commissioned our third mine,” said Executive Chairman John Welborn.

Fenix is now also operating Shine and W11, and will soon transition fully to the Weld Range Project – one of the last untapped major direct shipping ore high grade hematite projects in Western Australia.

The ambitions for Weld Range were formed on the back of a deal with Sinosteel – a subsidiary of Baowu, the largest steel maker in the world – which gave Fenix exclusive rights to mine the 300 million tonnes of identified iron ore.

“Our three-year plan was really centred on the transition to the Weld Range. Our current guidance is to produce between 4.2 and 4.8 this financial year. To take the midpoint on that, we aim to deliver 4.5 million tonnes by July, 5 million tonnes in FY27 and 5.5 million tonnes in FY28,” Mr Welborn said.

Becoming a 10 million tonne per year producer

In December 2025, Fenix also published a scoping study for the Weld Range project, which outlined a pathway to producing 10 million tonnes per year.

The financial modelling picks up from the end of the three year plan and covers from FY29 onwards.

“It’s a very exciting pathway,” Mr Welborn said. “We currently have an established C1 cost base of around 75 Australian dollars per tonne for our existing operations. The study outlines a pathway where we can reduce that to 55 Australian dollars per tonne which would get us into the lower half of the global cost curve and we would join some of the most highly profitable mining operations on the planet, both in terms of scale and margin. So that’s a very exciting achievable goal in the short term.”

What’s next?

Looking ahead, Fenix is working on a feasibility study, mapping out its transition to the Weld Range Project. The plan is still in progress and builds from the scoping study with Welborn confident the company’s unique business model, which includes a port logistics and haulage business operation, will play a key role in lowering costs.

“We’ve developed a unique approach to haulage, and our port operations bring significant value. The infrastructure we have at Geraldton Port as a bulk commodity producer is of equal importance as our resource base and our mining activities.

“Combined, our logistics, haulage network, and port facilities allow us to get our products efficiently to our customers.”

In its quest to become a lower cost, higher volume producer, Fenix will develop a private haul road.

“This will change the nature, and therefore the cost base, of our transport logistics, as well as enabling the expansion of our mining operations.

“Most of the large scale iron ore miners, particularly the ones in the Pilbara , operate on railways. The absence of a modern bulk commodity railway in the Midwest has always curtailed regional development. Fenix has a unique approach to solving that problem. We are running our current logistics using road trains on public roads at a cost which is significantly less than if we would achieve using the existing Midwest rail network.

“So that has been a real game changer and the next transformation will be the addition of a private haul road which will reduce haulage distances and enable transition to rail closer to Geraldton and create a much bigger higher value business.”

Investment potential

Mr Welborn said Fenix is also keen to engage with financiers and is confident about the company’s investment potential.

“We’ve always delivered on everything we said we would. We commissioned our first mine – the Iron Ridge iron ore mine – on time and on budget, an achievement that shouldn’t be as laudable and unique as it seems to be in the junior resources industry. We did the same with the Shine iron ore mine and we’ve just ramped up W 11 in accordance with our feasibility study and our published ambitions.

“With the Weld Range scoping study, if you put in spot iron ore prices, the NPV is $3 billion. At the moment, our market cap is hovering around 400 million Australian dollars. So, there’s a significant opportunity for us to continue to deliver on these projects in terms of value uplift.”

Mr Welborn is also optimistic about the market conditions and said Fenix’s transaction with Sinosteel signals a positive development for commodity prices.

“Prices are looking interesting. Sinosteel has been acquired by Baowu. So we’re now effectively operating in partnership with the largest steel maker in the world.

“Obviously the junior space and midcap space is being dominated by the fantastic performance of the gold miners on the back of a rampaging gold price. But there is an equally fascinating and huge value opportunity in iron ore.

“We do it really well in iron ore mining in WA. We have some of the greatest iron ore deposits in the world and it’s just amazing for me that Fenix has this amazing opportunity to unlock further value. I spent the early part of my career hunting for resource opportunities in Africa, thinking that all of the discovery and development opportunities would have been pegged in Australia, and particularly WA.

“So we are very excited at Fenix that we’re unlocking a major resource region. We think we’re building a company that’s going to be operating and expanding for decades to come.”

Further insight

Sharing more on Fenix’s roadmap, John Welborn will present at the upcoming Global Iron Ore and Steel Conference, hosted by Informa Connect.

This year’s conference will be held 25-26 March 2026 at the Pan Pacific Perth.

Learn more and register your tickets here.