Production delay on Murchison's iron ore project

Production from the first stage of Murchison Metals Ltd's $24 million Jack Hills iron ore project has been delayed two months until August this year.
The company said environmental approvals for clearing vegetation at the Jack Hills mine site, 380km north-east of Geraldton, would not be completed until early July, pushing first ore shipments out to August.
The start up project involves the initial production of 1.2 million tonnes of iron ore a year to be trucked to Geraldton Port, increasing to 1.8 mt/year in 2008.
On the positive side, Murchison has concluded further sales contracts that now cover all stage-one's five year production plan and worth about $95 million in the first year of operations.
The second stage of the Jack Hills development is targeting 25mt/year from mid 2010.