Fenix FY28 6Mtpa iron ore push: mine design and haulage notes for planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Fenix Resources has set a FY28 target to lift its flagship Mid West iron ore operation to 6Mtpa, underpinned by completing two new mines to feed its existing 1.5Mtpa Iron Ridge hub. The plan centres on staged expansions using road haulage to the Geraldton port, leveraging current crushing and screening infrastructure rather than building a greenfield processing plant. For mine planners and geotechs, the strategy signals sustained pit development, additional waste dump and haul road construction, and longer-term geotechnical monitoring across multiple satellite deposits.
Technical Brief
- Development sequencing will require concurrent pit stripping, waste emplacement and haul road upgrades across multiple deposits.
- Progressive mine completions extend wall exposure times, driving longer-term slope monitoring and geotechnical model updates.
- Additional waste dumps will need staged lift design, drainage control and closure-ready batter configurations from early planning.
- For similar satellite‑hub iron ore districts, the case reinforces brownfield processing debottlenecking over standalone plants.
Our Take
A planned 6 Mtpa iron output in Australia will sit several tiers below Pilbara majors like BHP and Rio Tinto, but our database shows that similar mid-tier volumes often secure niche offtake by targeting flexibility and short-haul logistics rather than pure scale.
With two mine completions baked into the FY28 horizon, Fenix’s schedule will overlap with the 2025–2028 sustaining capital window at Rio Tinto Iron Ore and the WAIO power-network restructuring, suggesting contractor and labour availability in Western Australia could become a key execution risk or cost driver.
Among the 82 iron-tagged pieces in our coverage, most recent Australian items focus on infrastructure and power deals (such as BHP–GIP/BlackRock for WAIO), so a growth-by-production target signals that Fenix is positioning more as a volume responder to iron ore price cycles than as an infrastructure owner-operator.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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