Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp (LIORC), a part of Iron Ore Company (IOC) of Canada, has its production and sales volume in line with its guidance for the year despite challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IOC had projected LIORC’s concentrate and pellet production to be between 17.9mn mt to 20.4mn mt. With increasing demand for pellet in Europe, IOC increased production by operating five lines and plans to start the sixth line in Q4 to bolster production.
In January-September, LIORC’s pellet production fell 7pc to 7.1mn mt compared to the prior year while concentrate output stood at 13.8mn mt, down by 4pc in the same period. During this period, pellet sales increased by 6.1pc to 7.61mn mt while concentrate sales were up by 17pc to 6.35mn mt.
Q3 2020 operations
In Q3 2020, the Canadian iron ore producer’s concentrate output fell by 26pc to 1.8mn mt from Q3 2019. Pellet volumes also declined by 17pc to 2.2mn mt from Q3 2019. During the quarter, LIORC’s pellet sales grew to 2.35mn mt from 2.04mn mt in Q3 2019 while concentrate sales fell to 2.31mn mt from 2.46mn mt in the same quarter last year.
LIORC’s revenue in January-September amounted to C$147.9mn ($112.5mn), up from from C$138.7mn in same period of 2019. IOC’s Q3 revenue increased to C$52.9mn against C$46.2mn in Q3 2019.