Australian mining company Gindalbie Metals has reported the production of first batch of magnetite concentrate with 68% iron grading at Karara project located 200km east of Geraldton in Western Australia.

The company has commissioned all the nine key areas of the concentrator, while the final polishing circuit currently underway. In addition, it has also addressed filtering problems with the tailings circuit following the installation of additional piping and pumping capacity.

Following the successful operation of its key areas, the company is now working for the efficient integration of all the elements of the plant to achieve its nameplate capacity of eight million tons a year of magnetite concentrate.

Gindalbie Metals managing director Tim Netscher said that the production of the first ever high grade concentrate was a key milestone for the project.

"This would be amongst the highest grade, best quality iron-ore products every produced in Western Australia and it certainly marks the first time a product of this nature has ever been produced in the Midwest region," added Netscher.

The Karara project has shipped nearly 4.8 million tons of magnetite through the port of Geraldton, with 1.3 million tons of this made up of concentrate.