Rising mining giant Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG) reported on Thursday that it saw a seven percent slip on its September quarter iron ore shipments though the quarterly results exceeded previously set projections.

Fortescue said that a total of 10.8 million tonnes of iron ore were shipped from the Pilbara region of Western Australia from July to the end of September as compared to the 11.04 million tonnes shipped out during the three months that ended in June.

In spite of the decline, the iron ore miner maintained that it has surpassed its own quarterly projections for September as it pointed out that "the quarterly result of 10.1Mt of Fortescue shipped product was above guidance of 9.5Mt and was achieved despite a number of scheduled maintenance shuts at the port and the mine's ore processing facility."

Total mine yields in the September quarter reached 11.05 million tonnes, which was merely down by three percent from the 11.39 million tonnes of iron ore harvested in the previous quarter.

Fortescue said that it was able to process some 9.7 million tonnes of iron ore in the same period as compared to the 10.49 million tonnes processed in the prior quarter, noting that the yield was an eight percent improvement from the corresponding period from a year ago.

All these were attained, according to the company, despite "an aggregate of seven and a half days down time during which the OPF (ore processing facility) team successfully completed two major scheduled maintenance shuts."

Fortescue further stressed that its Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mines on Chichester would be sustaining their steady operations with the goal of achieving 40 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) leading to the scheduled February 2011 commissioning of the new Christmas Creek OPF.

On its annual report made public on Wednesday, Fortescue said that production target would be notched by up to 55 MTPA which is in line with company's projection of reaching an output rate of more than 50 MTPA in the succeeding quarters after September.