Silver Yard, Labrador Iron Ore mines

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These are just some of the many former iron ore mines in the Schefferville area. These very rich orebodies are found in small deposits in a northwest-southeast band through Schefferville.

After enormous deposits of iron ore were discovered in Labrador, the Iron Ore Company of Canada established the town of Schefferville, built a 573 km railway connecting the mines to a new deepwater port at Sept Iles, built two hydro plants and an airport, and opened the mines in 1954. However, declining prices in the 1980s coupled with the discovery of major new higher grade deposits in Brazil and Australia and the development by IOC of its Labrador City deposits, led to a decision by IOC to shut down the Schefferville operations in 1982. By that time, 152 million tonnes of iron ore had been mined, with 200 million tonnes of reserves and resources remaining.

Much of the extensive infrastructure from the former operations remains intact. With recent increasing demand for iron ore, two projects are set to resume iron ore mining in the area. The first is Labrador Iron Mines, which is reopening former IOC deposits near Schefferville during summer 2010. LIM plans to mine three million tonnes of DSO ore a year, rising eventually to 6 million tonnes.

www.labradorironmines.ca/project.php

Further to the northwest of LIM is New Millenium Capital's DSO Project, which will reopen one of the IOC mines by late 2011 and then move into new high-grade ore deposits nearby. New Millenium has entered into a joint venture with India's Tata Steel (20%/80%) to develop the project, with all ore going to Tata Steel's mills in Europe and elsewhere.

The company also holds the LabMag and the KeMag Iron Ore Projects in the Millenium Range. These deposits hold billions of tonnes of lower grade iron ore (around 30% Fe) that could sustain an enormous mining operation for decades. LabMag, for instance, would mine 33 million tonnes of crude iron ore per year to produce 15 million tonnes per year of concentrate and pellets for a minimum of 65 years. The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach owns 20% of The LabMag Iron Ore Project.

www.nmlresources.com/


DSO = Direct Shipping Ore. This (primarily) hematite ore is very rich, consisting of 58% iron, and can be direct shipped with little processing (just washing and cleaning). Most iron ores contain 26-28% iron and must be concentrated and pelletized before shipping to steel mills.