Gindalbie iron ore project schedule slips

Gindalbie Metals' timeline for its flagship Karara iron ore project in Western Australia has slipped but the $2.57 billion development cost remains the same.

Chairman George Jones told the company's annual general meeting in Perth today that the construction and commissioning schedule for Karara in the state's mid-west region and target date for first shipments of magnetite concentrate had been pushed back.

The delay is a result of issues with the main piping supplier, which has been affected by floods in Thailand.

"While we will continue to work to minimise the flow-on effects of this situation, it is likely that the timing of critical deliveries of piping to Karara may be affected, impacting the overall project completion and commissioning timeline," Mr Jones told investors.

The target date for the first trial shipment of magnetite concentrate has been pushed back to the September quarter of next year, compared to June 2012 as previously targeted.

"Importantly, we do not believe that there will be any material impact on the overall project construction budget as a result of this unexpected and unavoidable delay," Gindalbie said.

The company said it would take until late next year before it was able to ramp up all components of the Karara concentrator to the full eight million tonne per annum production capacity.

However, it would be delivering a high value product that, even at its long term iron ore forecasts, would generate a strong margin, Gindalbie said.

Iron ore miners including Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Iron have recently flagged a fall in iron ore prices in coming years.

Shares in the Perth-based Gindalbie were down 2.5 cents, or 4.46 per cent, at 53.5 cents at 1251 AEDT compared to losses in the broader market of about 2.6 per cent.