Alien Metals Ltd (LON:UFO) expects the Hancock iron ore project in Western Australia to receive heritage clearance in the fourth quarter of this year ahead of the award of a mining licence and start of production in 2023.
The end of 2022 has also been pencilled in for the finalisation of a US£15mln funding package and offtake deal with Anglo-American for the output from Hancock.
Discussions are underway with potential partners for its other iron projects, Alien said in a statement.
Roderick McIllree, Alien's chairman, added: "The company continues to move from strength to strength as evidenced by each of the recent agreements and deals completed.
“Making the transition from explorer to producer will mark a major inflection point in the company's evolution and represent, I believe, a huge value transition for shareholders.
"The longer-term strategy for the company is to deliver on multiple DSO iron mines in the Pilbara and we are currently working hard to build the team that will deliver this.”
Hancock project has an inferred mineral resource of over 10mln tonnes at 60.4% iron.