From Australia CIA Largest high grade specialist Champion Iron is the largest high grade specialist on the ASX, producing 7.5Mtpa of 66.2% and 67.5% plus DRI quality iron ore concentrate from its Bloom Lake complex in Quebec, Canada.
Its origin story was an incredible counter-cyclical move from Champion and its Australian figurehead Michael O’Keefe, renowned for being part of the Riversdale Mining team that made a motsa selling the ill-fated Mozambique coal assets to Rio Tinto.
Champion bought Bloom Lake, which runs off renewable hydroelectric power, for just $10.5 million off Cliffs in 2016 at the height of the mining bust when iron ore prices were in the toilet.
It is now a $3.2 billion company, up around 3000% in the six years since signing off on the Bloom Lake deal.
The company says its 66.2% concentrate reduces emissions in the blast furnace steelmaking process, while its >67.5% pellet feed concentrate can be used in electric arc furnaces which normally require scrap steel as a feed source, 50% less emissions intense than blast furnaces.
Champion Iron has built on its success to fund an expansion of Bloom Lake to 15Mtpa, due to be complete by mid-2022, and is conducting research on producing a 69% super premium pellet iron ore product. The company has growth options as well at projects along the Labrador Trough.