This is getting absurd.

Iron ore was up another $US6.35 – or 3.4% — yesterday to $US191.45/t (CFR Tianjin port). That’s very close to all-time highs of ~$US200/t, reached in November 2007.

The US iron ore price (62% fe) since late 2007. Pic: TradingEconomics

It also is not representative of what some high grade, high value product miners are actually getting.

Environmental regulations in China are prompting steel mills to pay more for the high quality iron ore products – a lot more.

Iron ore ‘lumps’ and ‘pellets’ earn a price premium over iron ore ‘fines’, which must be processed further before going into a steelmaker’s blast furnace.

S&P Global Platts said pellets with 65 per cent iron were receiving a premium of $US64.65 per tonne above the benchmark price.

That’s ~$320/t Australian all up.

Tassie pellet producer Grange Resources (ASX:GRR) says it received average prices for the March quarter of US$228.52/t ($297.66/t), compared with US$174.69/t ($236.77/t) for the December quarter.

That is a huge profit on costs of ~$113/t.

 

Here’s how ASX-listed iron ore stocks are performing:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop

CODE COMPANY 1 WEEK RETURN % 1 MONTH RETURN % 6 MONTH RETURN % 1 YEAR RETURN % PRICE MARKET CAP
BCK Brockman Mining 138 103 146 283 0.069 $ 733,059,338.35
VMS Venture Minerals 34 53 149 521 0.087 $ 105,654,557.57
RHI Red Hill Iron 27 86 210 242 0.65 $ 38,920,796.85
CAP Carpentaria Resources 20 46 38 116 0.054 $ 18,360,000.00
IRD Iron Road 17 19 66 488 0.28 $ 222,757,149.29
TI1 Tombador Iron 11 10 182 275 0.079 $ 83,532,450.40
GRR Grange Resources 10 27 156 193 0.615 $ 694,403,218.80
GWR GWR Group 8 25 89 371 0.33 $ 102,947,390.62
FMG Fortescue Metals 8 14 38 100 22.89 $ 69,892,503,638.60
FEX Fenix Resources 8 45 134 567 0.34 $ 166,426,830.80
CIA Champion Iron 7 33 127 267 6.97 $ 3,549,276,309.64
SRK Strike Resources 7 23 153 513 0.245 $ 60,547,895.66
DRE Dreadnought Resources 6 -5 -24 280 0.019 $ 41,730,000.00
JMS Jupiter Mines 5 9 18 41 0.34 $ 646,467,040.89
MIN Mineral Resources 5 25 80 191 46.12 $ 8,634,671,176.50
AKO Akora Resources 5 -13 0.33 $ 16,904,448.00
GEN Genmin 2 6 0.28 $ 78,211,776.44
RIO Rio Tinto 2 11 30 41 122.84 $ 45,477,698,377.14
BHP BHP Group 1 7 35 57 48.09 $ 140,929,530,688.96
ADY Admiralty Resources 0 5 92 360 0.023 $ 28,978,367.48
CZR CZR Resources 0 0 -14 20 0.013 $ 45,510,000.00
MGX Mount Gibson Iron -1 15 29 40 0.88 $ 1,061,395,874.31
MGU Magnum Mining & Exp -3 70 233 325 0.17 $ 68,044,077.12
RLC Reedy Lagoon -5 -9 62 950 0.021 $ 9,870,549.49
SHH Shree Minerals -6 7 14 700 0.016 $ 16,163,790.27
FMS Flinders Mines -12 -6 26 81 1.17 $ 197,552,835.09
ACS Accent Resources -13 -61 250 600 0.035 $ 14,912,873.06
MGT Magnetite Mines -16 18 490 2043 0.059 $ 175,459,561.01
LCY Legacy Iron Ore -23 10 89 750 0.017 $ 108,880,554.79
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WEEKLY WINNERS

BROCKMAN MINING (ASX:BCK) + 138%

On Friday, Chinese-owned Brockman and major miner Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) formed a JV to bring a 25 million tonnes a year Pilbara iron ore hub into production.

$8.5bn market cap Mineral Resources will fund ~$105m worth of initial development works at the ‘Marillana’ and ‘Ophthalmia’ project mine sites, as well as on the transport corridor and port area.

Th development timeframe is estimated at about three-and-a-half years.
 
VENTURE MINERALS (ASX:VMS) +34%

Venture is on track to me Australia’s next iron ore miner at its Riley mine in northwest Tasmania.

On April 21 the company was just two weeks from commissioning the plant.

“This timing puts the first iron ore shipment on track for this quarter and puts the company in a strong position to take advantage of the historically high iron ore prices,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic says.

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