About
Champion Iron Mines Limited is a Canadian iron ore exploration and development company publicly traded on the TSX Exchange under the CHM symbol. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and has a corporate office in Montreal, Quebec and an exploration office in Val d'Or, Quebec. Champion has 14 strategically located Properties, covering 747 square kilometres (km²), near existing producers in the Fermont Iron Ore District in northeastern Quebec. In addition, Champion Iron Mines holds 94 claims, covering 310 km² in the Schefferville region of northeastern Quebec and western Labrador. Champion also has an option agreement on two copper properties in central Newfoundland.
On November 21, 2011 the company issued the results of an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment study on the Fire Lake North Project, located in the centre of the Fermont Iron Ore District. The study estimates Fire Lake North's Net Present Value (NPV) to be $4 billion, at a discounted cash flow rate of 8%, with an Internal Rate of Return of 41.5% and a capital payback period of 2.3 years. Concentrator production would average 8.7 million tonnes of concentrate per year (Mtpa) grading 65% iron for the first 25 of the 40 year mine life; however, the first five years of the financial model will average nearly 10 Mtpa of concentrate production. The NPV of $4 billion, updated from the November 2010 NPV of $1.6 billion, reflects the high-quality, coarse, specular-hematite iron oxide mineralization, which liberates at a grain size of 850 microns and is considered clean of deleterious elements.
The current resource estimate for the portfolio of Fermont Holdings includes National Instrument (NI) 43-101 compliant mineral resources of 4.7 billion tonnes, which include Measured and Indicated resources of 400.1 million tonnes grading 30.6% iron, and Inferred resources of 661.2 million tonnes grading 27.7% iron at the flagship Fire Lake North Project. The Fire Lake North Project is located adjacent to the north of ArcelorMittal's Fire Lake Mine, which contains approximately 500 million tonnes at 30% iron.
Champion is on its way to becoming a major, long-life, iron ore producer in eastern Canada, a politically stable region with existing infrastructure and a rapidly expanding production profile. The ever-increasing value of Champion’s asset portfolio is a reflection of its strategic importance within the context of the increasing world demand for iron ore; a trend that is expected to continue.
