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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| ASX: FMG | |
| ISIN | AU000000FMG4 |
| Industry | Metals,mining andenergy |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Perth,Western Australia |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Products | Iron ore,steel,gold,copper,lithium |
| Revenue |  A$17.62 billion (2020)[1] |
| A$11.50 billion (2020)[1] | |
| A$6.50 billion (2020)[1] | |
| Total assets | A$48.05 billion (2020)[1] |
| Total equity | A$26.41 billion (2020)[1] |
Number of employees | 11,000+ (2020)[1] |
| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | www.fortescue.com |
Fortescue is a globalmetal mining company headquartered in Australia. Fortescue focused oniron ore mining under the name ofFortescue Metals Group (FMG) until July 2023.[2] As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the world.[3] The company has holdings of more than 87,000 km2 (34,000 square miles) in thePilbara region ofWestern Australia, making it the largest tenement holder in the state,[4] larger than bothBHP andRio Tinto.[5]
As of May 2022[update]Andrew Forrest is Executive Chairman and owns a third of the company.[6] Dino Otranto is theCEO of Fortescue's Metals division (Aug 2023–),[7] and Mark Hutchinson is theCEO of the Energy division.[8]
Former Chief Executive Elizabeth Gaines is now global brand ambassador.[9][10]
The group has two main areas of operation located within thePilbara region ofWestern Australia, the Chichester Hub and Solomon Hub. Plans to develop a third, Western Hub were as of 2017 in developmental stage. In 2017 Fortescue started exploration of possible mining tenements inSouth America and other parts of Australia.[11] FMG engages professional lobbyists to represent their interests to parliaments in multiple jurisdictions. InSouth Australia, they are represented by Spring Street Advisory Pty Ltd.[12]
Located in the heart of thePilbara, the Chichester Hub is made up of Fortescue's flagship minesiteCloudbreak and the second minesiteChristmas Creek. The total Chichester Hub produces 90 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of iron ore plus an additional five mtpa from a joint venture with BC Iron.[13]
Fortescue's first minesiteCloudbreak in 2013 mined 40 million tonnes of iron ore a year.[13] The horizontal nature of the deposits at Cloudbreak called for a new mining approach to those used at other mines which operate on vertical deposits of ore.Overburden removal is done using conventional blast, truck and shovel methods while specially designed surface miners cut and load the ore into trucks for transport to the run of mine stockpiles.Screening, crushing and desand plants at the Cloudbreak ore processing facility prepare and refine the product before the ore is stockpiled ahead of transport to port. The train loadout facility at Cloudbreak is capable of feeding 16,000 tonnes of ore per hour on the 2.7 km-long (1.7-mile) trains ready for the journey along the 256 km (159-mile) heavy-haul railway to the facilities at Herb Elliott Port.[citation needed]
Mining began atChristmas Creek, 50 km (31 miles) to the east ofCloudbreak, in May 2009. Subsequent expansion projects have lifted production capacity to 50 million tonnes per annum.[when?][13]The operations at Christmas Creek are undergoing expansion and in late 2010 a fifty-kilometre extension to the existing Port Hedland to Cloudbreak rail line was completed to transport the ore to Cloudbreak. The first ore-processing facility (OPF) was commissioned at Christmas Creek in April 2011 with a second OPF commissioned in 2012. As part of the second expansion, a number of additional infrastructure projects were completed, including a 6.3 km (3.9-mile) overland conveyor, a new airstrip, an expansion of the power plant and increasing capacity at the operations village to 1,600 rooms.[13]
In January 2013, Fortescue awardedMacmahon Holdings a $1.8 billion mining services contract for its Christmas Creek mine expansion. The Christmas Creek expansion increases the capacity of the Chichester operations to 95 million tons a year, and was a key component of the company's 155-million-tonne-a-year expansion plans.[14]
Located in the middle of Fortescue's 87,000 km2 (34,000 square miles) Pilbara tenement area, the Solomon Hub was Fortescue's next major project. It has almost twice the resource and less than half the strip ratio of the Chichester Hub. Fortescue's Exploration team has already[when?] delineated more than 2.86×10^9 t (2.81×10^9 long tons; 3.15×10^9 short tons) of resource at the Solomon Hub and there are identified exploration prospects targeting up to 5×10^9 t (4.9×10^9 long tons; 5.5×10^9 short tons). In May 2013, Fortescue officially opened its 20-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa)Firetail mine at Solomon.[15] In December 2013, the company announced it had achieved first production from its 40 mtpaKings Valley mine.[16]
The train load out (TLO) facility at Firetail was commissioned in November 2012 and the first ore was transported on the Fortescue Hamersley Rail Line in December 2012. In December 2012 Fortescue opened the 129 km (80-mile) Solomon Railway that connects Solomon to Fortescue's mainline to its port operations.[17]
A third operation within the Solomon hub, theQueens Valley mine, was approved for construction in 2019 at a projected cost of A$417 million. The mine, located 15 km west of the Kings Valley mine, is scheduled to open in 2022.[18]
In May 2018 Fortescue announced a US$1.28 billion development of a new mine in the Pilbara at the Eliwana site. This expansion will include an additional 143 km of railway and a dry ore processing plant capable of processing 30 million tonnes a year. The new mine is expected to have an 18-year lifespan and will be funded from the company's cash flow.[19]
The project is expected create 1,900 construction jobs and 500 permanent full-time positions with production expected to commence in 2020. The Eliwana mine is part of Fortescue's strategy to move to a 60 per cent iron-grade product.[19]
TheIron Bridge mine, located 145 kilometres south of Port Hedland, opened in 2023, sending slurry with 0.028mm grains by pipeline 135 km to Port Hedland.[20] The mine is projected to produce 22 million tonnes of high-grade 67%magnetite per annum by 2026. The project is a joint venture between Fortescue andFormosa Steel, withBaosteel as a minority share holder.
BC Iron is a much smaller mining company with iron ore deposits atNullagine. In 2009, the two companies entered into a 50-50 joint venture in which BC Iron manages mining, crushing and screening, and trucking while Fortescue is contracted to provide haulage and port services to the joint venture.[21] In December 2012 Fortescue sold a 25% stake to BC Iron Ore for A$190 million and agreed to increase the available capacity to the NJV on Fortescue's rail and port infrastructure from the existing 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), to 6 mtpa for the life of the joint venture.[22]
In June 2018 Fortescue announced the purchase of 15% of junior iron ore minerAtlas Iron. This brought Fortescue's ownership stakes up to nearly 20%. The acquisition of a controlling interest in Atlas Iron was planned to give Fortescue access to greater port capacity as well as additional higher-grade iron ore tenements. This also potentially allowed a move towards lithium production.[23]
This move was also potentially giving Fortescue access to the North West Infrastructure joint venture. This venture was a collaboration between Atlas Iron,Brockman Mining andFerrAus.[24]
In October 2018, however, Atlas was acquired by Redstone Resources, a fully owned subsidiary ofHancock Prospecting,[25] and delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange on 21 November 2018.[26]
In February 2023Fortescue Metals Group inked in an agreement to develop iron ore atBelinga in north-easternGabon with a road and railway to an existing port ofOwendo. The initial quantity of ore to be exported is 2 million tonnes of ore per year.[27]
In 2017 Fortescue announced they were looking to diversify their portfolio by exploring for metals and minerals in South America and other parts of Australia.Gold,copper andlithium were highlighted ascommodities of interest.[28]
"We continue to undertake early-stage, low-cost exploration on copper gold prospective tenements inSouth Australia andNew South Wales and have assessed high-potential, early-stage exploration tenements inEcuador, where Fortescue was granted 32 exploration areas."[29]
The company has built a mine, a 260 km (162-mile)private railway and a new port at Point Anderson (aka Herb Elliot Port)[30] nearPort Hedland. The Fortescue rail line has a flyover over theMount Newman railway, and a crossing of theBHP Billiton railway. The "first ore on ship" on the line occurred in May 2008, three-and-a-half years after construction started.[31]
The railway's 240-wagon iron ore trains are amongst the heaviest trains in the world.[31] The1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (standard-gauge) heavy-haul railway is used by 35,200 t (34,644-long-ton; 38,801-short-ton) trains up to 2.5 km (1.6 miles) long carrying 29,000 t (28,542 long tons; 31,967 short tons) of ore at a 40 t (39-long-ton; 44-short-ton)axle load (the weight of the two 4,000 hp [3 MW] engines is extra). The railway is available to other miners for a fee. Atlas Exports has signed a commercial agreement to use the line and port.[31]
The railway parallels another iron ore railway, the BHP Billiton railway, for over 100 km (62 miles). Fortescue had sought access to use this line, butBHP declined.[32]
The FMG railway uses the up-to-dateelectronically controlled pneumatic brakes for all its rolling stock.
As of June 2018[update] Fortescue has an operating fleet of sevenore carriers with an eighth currently[when?] in construction. Four of the carriers were built by theYangzijiangshipyard inJiangsu,China. The rest of the fleet is being built byGuangzhou Shipyard International.[33]
The current operating fleet is:
In 2020, Fortescue Future Industries was created to produce energy in several countries, starting with the 60 MWsolar farm at its Chichester Hub.[34]
In October 2021, Fortescue Future Industries andPlug Power Inc. announced ajoint venture to build agreen hydrogen equipment manufacturing facility inAldoga, Queensland. The first stage, due for completion in 2022, is expected to double the world's green hydrogen capacity. When the plant is completed, it is expected to be the largest of its type in the world.[35][36]
Also in October 2021, Fortescue Future Industries andIncitec Pivot announced afeasibility study for a newammonium nitrate production plant inBrisbane. The plant would usePEM electrolysers to generate hydrogen to produce ammonium nitrate, mainly used as fertiliser and as a component in explosives, replacing the conventional manufacturing process which uses natural gas.[37][38]
In November 2021 it was announced that Fortescue Future Industries would build a plant inRío Negro Province, Argentina, that initially in 2024 would produce 600 MW of green hydrogen a year, rising to 15GW by 2030.[39]
In March 2022, Fortescue Future Industries acquired UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), now rebranded as Fortescue Zero. As part of this acquisition, Fortescue and WAE will jointly develop the world first,zero emission electric Infinity Train that charges itself using the Earth'sgravitational force.[40][41]
In July 2023 Fortescue Metals Group and Fortescue Future Industries were combined to form Fortescue.[2]
In late 2004 and early 2005, Fortescue chairman and then-CEO Andrew Forrest made a series of announcements that Fortescue had entered into "binding agreements" with three significant Chinese state-owned entities to build and finance infrastructure for the company.[42][43] TheAustralian Securities & Investments Commission took legal action against FMG and Forrest. Although an initial ruling by Justice John Gilmour[44] in 2009 found Forrest hadn't acted in a misleading or deceptive manner,[45] Chief JusticePatrick Keane and judgesArthur Emmett andRaymond Finkelstein of the Federal Court of Australia[46] overturned this decision in 2011, finding that FMG and its chairman and CEO, Andrew Forrest, had engaged inmisleading or deceptive conduct and breached the continuous disclosure provisions in theCorporations Act, 2001,[47] by claiming to have binding contracts with China.[45]
The court found that a Chinese framework agreement does not amount to a binding contract, in the natural meaning of the word.[48] If found to have breached director's duties, Forrest faced the possibility of being banned as a director of an ASIC-listed company.[49] FMG appealed against the decision,[50] and in October 2012, theHigh Court found in favour of FMG and Forrest, reversing the decision of the full bench of the Federal Court and agreeing with the original 2009 decision by Justice Gilmour.[51] In his judgement, Justice Honour concluded that Fortescue's releases "correctly represented that there was an agreement, and that it was in the view of the parties binding from the time of board approval".[42]
Despite the early announcement, in 2008, the group loaded its first iron ore shipment bound for China. Fortescue have at least ten Chinese steel mill contracts lasting for around ten years. Baosteel was the first company to receive their iron ore.[52]
Since 2008 Fortescue have been in a legal battle with the traditional owners of the Solomon Mine area, theYindjibarndi people, where Fortescue (then FMG) acquired mining leases and has been mining since 2013.[53] When Fortescue started planning the Solomon Hub, it entered negotiations with the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal corporation. However, the relationship deteriorated in 2007 when the Yindjibarndi people discovered that FMG had the legal authority to destroy their sacred sites and was doing so during the mine's construction.[54]
After the corporation rejected FMG's royalty offer, the miner supported a breakaway group, the Wirlu-Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, reportedly to facilitate Fortescue's approvals to mine. This group paid individuals $500 each to attend a meeting in 2010, where the deal was approved. Prior to this, the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) had lodged its opposition to the grant of the three licenses to theNative Title Tribunal in 2009, initially failing to win orders preventing the grant of the licenses. The YAC also failed in its initialFederal Court appeal of that decision last year, and the state government issued the mining licenses to FMG in late November 2010. Both FMG and the YAC are now waiting on the results of a new appeal to the Full Bench of the Federal Court.[55][56] The company estimated the extraction of 2.4 billion tons of ore over the next 40 years, worth $280 billion, offering less than a deal struck byRio Tinto that would provide $2 billion over 40 years.[57]
On 8 April 2011,Slater & Gordon, representing the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation in its negotiations with FMG, requested FMG compensate the Yindjibarndi community. In March 2011, FMG was accused of supporting a break-off group[58][59] to divide the local Yindjibarndi community during negotiations for access to traditional Yinjibarndi land for the planned $8.5 billion Solomon Hub project. While the law firm admitted FMG has put compensation money up, it said it was insufficient in comparison with the profits that will be made from this mine on the client's traditional land, as well as the royalty (tax) amounts that have been paid to non-Aboriginal people.[60]
In 2021 negotiations over anIndigenous Land Use Agreement failed, and as of May 2022[update] the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation is as of May 2022[update] leading a native title compensation claim in theFederal Court, asserting that FMG have been mining on Yindjibarndi land without an agreement. According to theNational Native Title Tribunal, the Federal Court needs to make a determination on whether the community is eligible for "compensation for the loss, impairment, diminution or extinguishment of native title rights and interests in the area".[9]
As of 2023, Fortescue has not provided any compensation or received permission from theYindjibarndi people to carry out mining on their land, despite them receiving permission from a larger local Aboriginal corporation, composed of most of the community leaders andelders. Fortescue's operations in the area have destroyed about 250 cultural and sacred sites.[61]
In 2024, the case between Fortescue and Yindjibarndi people continued in the Federal Court. A hearing was held inRoebourne and at a sacred site on Yindjibarndi country, called Bangkangarra, located in theHamersley Range, in the Pilbara. The Federal Court was informed that a ceremony traditionally used to reconcile the Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara after disputes has now been impacted by a division among the traditional owners.[62] During the court hearing on-country, a visibly upset Yindjibarndi elder testified before the Federal Court that Fortescue Metals Group had "stolen" and "destroyed" Yindjibarndi land.[63] Yindjibarndi elder Stanley Warrie wept as he directed Federal Court judge Stephen Burley to observe the red land, now marred by Fortescue’s large metal pipes on the outskirts of its iron ore pit.[64] Warrie told the Federal Court “Fortescue has stolen the land...This is my religion, and it’s been destroyed, my stories, my life. Yindjibarndi land is where my religion is.”[65]
During the court case, a senior Yindjibarndi person testified that the land had been so disturbed that it no longer attracted birds, flora, fauna, and sources of traditional food. When asked why, the traditional owner pointed to a mine processing site and stated, “You can see what’s happening here, this infrastructure.” He further explained that trucks and cars used at the mine site had disrupted the land.
The court then visited another location—a rock shelter with evidence of occupation dating back 35,000 years—situated beneath an iron ore haulage road. Justice Burnley remarked that he wanted the court to note the "constant and audible sound of vehicles" during the visit.[66]
Fortescue maintains that it does not owe compensation to the Yindjibarndi people, arguing that the responsibility lies with thestate of WA, which granted the tenements. The WA government disagrees, asserting that the miner is solely responsible.
Both parties agreed that compensation is owed. This was conveyed to the court during a week-long hearing at the town hall in Roebourne, the same location where negotiations between the Yindjibarndi people andAndrew Forrest broke down in 2011.
Some Yindjibarndi people have stated that the divisions among family and community members resulting from the Fortescue case may be irreparable.[67]
In August 2013, CEONev Power announced the company had achieved its target of awarding $1 billion in contracts toAboriginal business by the end of 2013.[68][69][70] Fortescue had made the commitment in 2011 to award $1 billion in contracts to businesses at least 25% owned by Aboriginal Australians through its Billion Opportunities program.[71]
In reaching its target six months early, the company had signed 102 contracts and subcontracts with 50 businesses[69] including $500 million worth of contracts with six Aboriginal joint ventures and Morris Corporation representing the largest-ever package of contracts awarded to Aboriginal businesses.[72] Of the contracts awarded, Fortescue said more than 80% were awarded to Aboriginal businesses that were at least half indigenous owned.[69] Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest toldThe Guardian: "The depth of what the Indigenous people have achieved and the change in direction they're taking is really historic."[71]
| BHP |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortescue |
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| Rio Tinto |
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| Hancock Prospecting |
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| Atlas Iron |
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| Other operations |
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