Tad Watroba, the chief lieutenant of Gina Rinehart and executive director of Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, dismissed media speculations that Roy Hill’s entry into the iron ore market will further bring down the price of the mineral. He also said that the first shipment of iron ore from Roy Hill has been delayed, and won’t be dispatched by Oct. 21.

Watroba said last week that the shipment, which was originally scheduled for September, would take place in October. However, he admitted on Wednesday that it will take even longer, stretching it past Oct. 21, 2015.

He also protested against the notion that the already soft prices of iron ore, which is floating around US$55 (AU$74.84) a tonne, would be weakened further with Roy Hill’s ingress into the market.

“Some media have got it wrong and are overstating the impact on the iron ore price from the Roy Hill project,” he said in a statement. “They ignore that the prices dropped last year, pre Roy Hill even shipping, and that when Roy Hill commences shipments in the last two months of this year, these initial shipments will only represent a small portion of its capacity of 55mtpa [million tonnes per annum]. They have also ignored the significant increases from now to end 2017 from other companies which will significantly exceed shipments from Roy Hill.”

He also said that 50 percent of the 55 million tonne output of Roy Hill will go to minority investment partners who are all based outside China. He pointed out that 90 percent of Roy Hill’s iron ore have already been signed into long term contracts and thus only a very small quantity of it will enter into the present market.

Roy Hill was not in the market when iron ore prices went down last year or even during this year, Watroba said. Also, it would not be shipping 55mtpa next year since it would still continue to ramp up its production.

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