The company recorded 2.4 million wet tonnes shipped over the three months to September versus 1.6Mt shipped during same period last year.

The average headline price for standard fines was $US117 per dry tonne cost and freight and $98/dt CFR for value fines.

It compared to an average price of $98/dt for standard product and $95/dt for value fines sold a year ago.

“The continued strong iron ore price coupled with a focus on cost control and expanded production has enabled Atlas to maintain cash on hand at $378 million at September 30, 2013, while investing $90 million in mine and infrastructure growth projects,” Atlas managing director Ken Brinsden said.

“Strong production from existing operations, combined with the commencement of mining and haulage from Atlas’ fourth mine, Abydos, has resulted in another quarter of record shipping.

“We now have a production rate of 10 million tonnes per annum, targeting shipments for the year of 9.8-10.3Mt.”

Atlas said investment in Abydos within its Horizon 1 portfolio in Western Australia’s Pilbara region helped drive the quarter’s record production, which reflected a 19% quarter-on-quarter increase in ore tonnes mined to 2.9Mt and a 25% increase in tonnes processed to 2.7Mt.

Work at Abydos resulted in the mine becoming a key contributor to the company’s product mix, with a production rate for direct shipping ore targeted at 2-3Mtpa.

With further exploration and conversion of existing resources, the company is targeting a mine life of 7-10 years for Abydos.

Other progress during the quarter was highlighted with the near completion of commissioning at the Utah Yard port facility expected to ensure port capacity from Abydos and the soon to be developed Mt Webber mine.

“We’re now well into what we consider to be the final leg of the journey for our construction of the Horizon 1 mines,” Brinsden told reporters today in a special media teleconference.

“Mt Webber is now well into construction, it’ll be commissioned this year.

“And while there is a subsequent expansion at Mt Webber, it’s a relatively low-cost expansion and as a result we’re now getting to the end of the capital expenditure spend.

“We’re spending $320 million to expand this year.

“It comes off substantially in 2015, we’re only spending about $150 million.

“In which case, with a healthy price environment, we are going to generate substantial cash flow and the spend portion of the company’s growth in Horizon 1 is in effect near completion.”

Atlas commercial executive director Mark Hancock added that the company’s outlook for future iron ore sales remained robust with something of a waiting list for offtake deals.

“We’ll probably introduce one or two new customers this year with the increased volume that we have,” he said.

“We’ve got a long list of parties that are interested, some of which we’re engaging with and others we’re frankly having to say, ‘we’re really sorry, we’d love to be able to do something but in the near future we can’t see how we can do that’

“We do see the drive to secure supply as pretty strong.”

Shares in Atlas were trading up 1.6% today at $1.06.