Confidence boost for United Minerals

Shares in United Minerals Corporation have climbed higher after the Perth-based company announced it had increased its Pilbara iron ore resource, boosting its confidence of production in early 2011.

In a statement today, the company said it had raised the total resource at its Railway iron ore deposit by 29 per cent to 158 million tonnes at a grade of 58.03 per cent iron.

The resource is in the inferred and indicated category.

The company is looking to step up to producer status at the project by early 2011.

"The 100.7Mt of Indicated DSO [direct shipping ore] bedded ore forms the basis for planning a mining operation at the Railway Deposit for the next 10 to 20 years, initially looking at a 3Mtpa mining operation with ore to be trucked to Port Headland," chief executive Matt Hogan said.

The resource lift comes two weeks after United struck an equity deal, valued at $27.2 million, with steel buyer China Railway Materials Commercial Corp Group.

Shares in United climbed 10 cents, or 11 per cent, to a high of $1.015 before easing to 95c at 15:43AEST. The company has a market capitalisation of $147 million.