The company said five separate memorandums of understanding had been signed with “globally significant” companies.

Under the MoUs, the Chinese firms are set to evaluate concentrate from Central Eyre.

Iron Road is hoping the early work will lead to discussions over a letter of intent (LoI) for long-term supply.

“The MoUs are aimed at establishing a detailed understanding of the commercial and technical benefits of the Central Eyre product,” managing director Andrew Stocks said.

“Our high quality product from the CEIP offers significant advantages for steel mills intent on running the most efficient and environmentally compliant operations, hence the strong interest we have received from a number of parties.”

One of the MoU parties, Shandong Iron & Steel Group, has signed a further agreement toward an LoI for iron ore supply.

The agreement also proposes that the state-owned firm will help Iron Road seek funding.

Iron Road is aiming to start construction of its multi-billion dollar project in 2017.

“We are very happy that ShanSteel wishes to strengthen our relationship and continue its evaluation of the CEIP,” Stocks said.

“We also look forward to collaborating further with ShanSteel on enabling the successful completion of our final preparations prior to funding and construction.”

Iron Road shares were up 17% to A8c this morning.