Iron Road has further reduced costs at its wholly-owned Central Eyre iron project (CEIP) in South Australia.
The latest move is part of the project commercialisation programme, which is being undertaken by the company and China Railway Group (CREC) together.
Iron Road has targeted a minimum 15% reduction in life of mine (LoM) OPEX as well as CAPEX.
Since the completion of the optimisation studies during 2014 – 2015, a sustained downward shift was witnessed in the market pricing of operating consumables.
Globally, development activity of resources sector also continues to unwind rapidly in a direct response to weak commodity prices putting additional downward pressure on CAPEX estimates, the company said.
The company said that the LoM average free-on-board (FOB) price had been minimised to $35.38/t as the market repriced operating consumables, including diesel, explosives, process plant grinding media and mill liners.
Together, they comprise 33% of FOB operating costs.
Iron Road managing director Andrew Stocks said: "Following the recent signing of our pivotal Strategic Co-operation Agreement with China Railway Group and a further tripartite agreement with China Railway and Shandong Iron and Steel Group, we are maintaining genuine momentum in advancing towards a final investment decision."
Together with its partners, Iron Road is continuing to get on with the business of assembling the CEIP development consortium and refining the project economics.
The project is located on the Eyre Peninsula and is a collection of three iron occurrences, which include Warramboo, Kopi and Hambidge.
