The Cloudbreak, Christmas Creek and Kutayi deposits lie within the Chichester Ranges, in northern Western Australia. Iron mineralisation is hosted by the Nammuldi Member which is the lowest member of the late Archaean aged Marra Mamba Iron Formation (MMIF). The Nammuldi Member is characterised by extensive, thick and podded iron rich bands, separated by equally extensive units of siliceous and carbonate rich chert and shale. The Nammuldi Member in the Chichester Range is interpreted to be up to 60 metres in true thickness. Underlying the Nammuldi Member rocks are black shales and volcanic rocks belonging to the Jeerinah Formation. Extended periods of tectonic activity have variably folded and faulted these rocks, together with weak metamorphism. Subsequent erosion and hardcapping or lateritic processes have altered these rocks, and present outcrop of Nammuldi Member represents a ridge of lowlying hills (relief up to 30 metres) throughout the prospect areas. These ridges are recognised as the Chichester Ranges.

Drilling within the prospects has proved that the Nammuldi target horizon extends below cover away from the hills. In these regions (recognised mineralisation has been intersected more than 6 kilometres from the outcrop) the target iron formation can be overlain by Tertiary age colluvium and alluvium (younger than 65 Million years). This colluvium can contain both cemented and un- cemented detrital products of iron enriched material, BIF, chert and shale wit ........

Chichester Hub in the Chichester Ranges includes the Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mines.

At Cloudbreak the Bigge development entered production in Q3 FY22. Bigge expands Cloudbreak further west and contributes low strip ratio material which supports the overall Fortescue product strategy.

Cloudbreak
The mining model is based on strip mining. Mining at Cloudbreak will continue to be carried out as open pit strip mining.

The pits are developed progressively, where a starter pit is opened (with overburden from the starter pit placed in a small overburden stockpile). As the mining face progresses, the open pit is progressively backfilled and rehabilitated.

The majority of the ore will be mined using surface miners. Surface miners can cutto an accuracy of 0.1 m and can extract ore without the need for drilling, blasting, or primary crushers to crush ore. Ore is loaded from the surface miner into trucks for transfer to the OPF.

Christmas Creek
Drill and blast
Drilling and blasting is used to allow areas of hard rock overburden to be removed. Drilling and blasting is undertaken in accordance with current operational procedures, which generally incorporate the following steps:
1. A series of holes are drilled into the rock.
2. The holes are filled with explosives and detonated.
3. The rock breaks up or collapses after detonation and the rock rubble is then removed.
4. The cleared rock face i ........

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Chichester Hub in the Chichester Ranges, comprising the Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mines, has an annual production capacity of approximately 100mtpa from three Ore Processing Facilities (OPFs). Consistent and sustained performance delivered from the OPFs has allowed us to optimise our product strategy through enhanced blending and beneficiation, supporting iron grades and reducing impurities.

This has contributed to lower mining cut-off grades, as weoptimise ore bodies with sustainably lower strip ratios. To further enhance our ore, the Christmas Creek OPF infrastructure has been upgraded to include a Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separator (WHIMS) to recover high grade iron from the finer ore fed through the plants, helping to improve product yield and reduce total mining volumes.

Cloudbreak utilises 10km of relocatable conveyors that can be adjusted and relocated to any new mining areas to offset the increase in costs. Currently, this conveyor infrastructure h ........