Ferrexpo

The business was founded by the Soviet government in 1960 as the "Poltava Mining and Extraction Combinat" to exploit iron ore reserves in Horishni Plavni (formerly Komsomolsk), Ukraine.[2] In 1977 it started selling its product in the form of iron ore pellets.[2]

In June 2007, Ferrexpo plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange, producing 8.6 million tonnes of iron ore pellets in the year prior to listing.[3]

In 2008 and 2009 the company established additional new complexes around Horishni Plavni and Kremenchuk. In 2011, the Company opened its second iron ore mine, the Yeristovo mine, which is located immediately north of the Company's main iron ore mine - the Poltava iron ore mine. Upon opening Yeristovo, Ferrexpo became the first company to open a new mine in Ukraine since the country's independence.[4]

Ferrexpo produces high grade iron ore pellets, which are a premium product for use in the steel industry.

In March 2019 the company delayed publication of its results pending an investigation into charitable donations in Ukraine.[5] In April 2019 its auditors Delloite resigned, with Ferrexpo's former chief financial officer selling £400,000 of shares the day before the announcement.[6] In August 2019 Ferrexpo announced that the charitable donations may have been misappropriated; it had donated $24 million to the charity in 2017 and $9.5 million in 2018.[7]

Following over US$2.75 billion of investment in the Company's operating assets since listing, the Company increased production to 11.2 million tonnes of iron ore pellets in 2020.[8]

Ferrexpo produces iron ore pellets, which are used in the global steel industry to produce high quality types of steel. Iron ore pellets are the highest quality form of iron ore that steel producers can utilise, offering steel producers the opportunity to improve blast furnace productivity, whilst simultaneously reducing carbon emissions by 40% for every tonne of pellets used instead of the more commonly used sinter fines, which are typically lower grade and require sintering prior to charging into the blast furnace.[9]

The Company, which sells most of its product to steel mills of Central Europe and Asia, is organised into the following units:[10]

• Ukraine - mining
• Switzerland - home base
• London - registered office, trading
• Dubai - distribution and sale
• Singapore - distribution and sale
• Shanghai - distribution and sale
• Tokyo - distribution and sale

The company's mining components are all based in central Ukraine and consist of:

• Poltava Mining and Enrichment Complex (1970s), Horishni Plavni
• Yeristovo Mining and Enrichment Complex (2008), Yerystivka village, Kremenchuk Raion
• Belanovo Mining and Enrichment Complex (est. 2009, under construction), Bazaluky village, Horishni Plavni municipality and Nova Haleshchyna, Kozelshchyna Raion

Ferrexpo has a JORC-compliant Ore Reserve estimate of 1,678 million tonnes for its mining operations in Ukraine for the Gorishne-Plavninske-Lavrykivske ('GPL') and Yerystivske deposits.[11] On the basis of the Company processing 28 million tonnes of ore in 2019, Ferrexpo has over 55 years of additional mine life remaining.[12]

Ferrexpo has a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource estimate of 6.1 billion tonnes of iron ore,[11] dated June 2020. To the north of the Company's JORC-compliant Mineral Resources, the Company has a further five exploration licences situated along strike of the Company's operational mines. These exploration licences, referred to as the Northern Deposits, have a further 13.1 billion tonnes of resources classified under the GKZ classification system.[11]

The founder, Kostyantyn Zhevago, owns 50.3% of the company.[13]

• Official site