UPDATE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2008

SITE PROGRESS

Work last week focused on the calibration of the Tipple and ensuring the ability to not exceed the weight limits of the rail cars. If a car is too heavy as it moves down the rail to the port, it will be removed from the track and ore will have to be removed to meet the weight limit. This is why it is essential that the loading system works flawlessly in together with the weigh scales for the cars (Figures 1-3).

Figure 1: Tipple Being Loaded From the Stockpile

Figure 2: View of Tipple Bin from Above

Figure 3: Material Moving on Feed Belt

The rail cars are currently loaded manually in just under two minutes using the UP provided bridge cars. These are longer than the new cars (Figures 4-5) we will lease and take longer to position. It is anticipated that once the new cars arrive, the loading time per car will be less than a minute.

Figure 4: View from Tipple of Empty Cars Being Positioned

FIgure 5: Full Cars Leaving the Tipple

THE PORT

Our Engineering staff, in cooperation with Gilbert Development, will be at the port this week to evaluate the upgrading procedure on the storage barn at the port. This is essential to make sure that upgrading will be sufficient to handle the high density material and assure capacity.

DELIVERY TO CHINA

There has been a lot of volatility reported in various publications around the world concerning the iron ore deliveries to China. You can read almost anything you want concerning the future. We have been assured by China Kingdom International that they, and the end user, are still anxious to get our material as quickly as possible under the existing contract. Now that we are in production and building the stockpile for shipment, we will continue to move towards shipping as soon as possible.