Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill mining project in WA shipped 4.45 million tonnes of iron ore in July, its chief executive says, meaning the company has nearly touched its nameplate capacity of 55 MT on an annualised basis for the first time.
Australia's newest large iron ore project has produced 45 MT so far since it started operations in December 2015, but has been beset with operational ramp up issues that have kept production below capacity.
Chief executive Barry Fitzgerald on Monday said it was now well on the path to overcoming these issues.
"Fundamentally, we are getting to a point where we are now comfortable that the project has capacity," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
"Last month reflected that drive for availability and reliability and we have some minor fine-tuning to go."
A fully-functioning Roy Hill mine will mean addition of iron ore tonnes at the same time that Brazilian iron ore giant Vale brings online its new S11D mine into a fully-supplied market and could impact prices.
Mr Fitzgerald admitted the market was going through a bit of flux, given the changes going on in China's steel industry, but said he wasn't worried.
"Long term I am comfortable we will find a market for the material. There is strong demand for an independent producer of our quality," he said.
The strong production comes with iron prices again rebounding on improving steel demand in China, with the steel-making ingredient trading around $US75 a tonne.
Roy Hill's three overseas shareholders have an obligation to offtake about 50 per cent of production, while a large part of the rest is sold on long-term contracts.
The mine is controlled by the Australian billionaire's Hancock Prospecting, with other partners including South Korea's Posco, Taiwan's China Steel Corp and Japan's Marubeni.
Mr Fitzgerald said the company's first priority was to reach the 55 MT target, and it would consider getting some flexibility beyond that sometime in the future.
