Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. is working toward expanding its mining base beyond iron ore and establishing its presence in Argentina and Ecuador, The Sydney Morning Herald reported June 4, citing CEO Elizabeth Gaines.
The Australian iron ore producer's chief executive said she is "optimistic" about the future of copper due to its growing use in electric vehicles. Argentina and Ecuador are prospective for copper and gold, and the former is also prospective for lithium.
Fortescue has set up offices in Ecuador, in which it holds mining concessions, but it has not begun drilling.
"At the moment we are exploring for other commodities, so yes, one of my goals would be that we see through our exploration activities that we find something that we can take through feasibility and investment decision to the point where potentially we're embarking on an operation in a new commodity," Gaines said in a statement.
Fortescue recently gave the go-ahead for the US$1.28 billion development of the Eliwana iron ore mine and rail project in Western Australia's Pilbara region, which will comprise 143 kilometers of rail, a new 30 million-tonne-per-annum dry ore processing facility and infrastructure. The miner chose Eliwana to replace depleting resources at the Firetail mine at its Solomon Hub operations.
