VANCOUVER, March 4, 2013 /CNW/ - Northern Iron Corp. ("Northern" or the "Company") (TSXV: NFE) (OTCQX- NHRIF) (FRANKFURT: N8I) today announced the release of part 3 of its animated short video series titled 'The New Iron Age'.

"China, our primary market, plans to urbanise a further 400,000,000 people by 2033. That's equivalent to building one new Chicago every year. Imagine the amount of steel required to achieve that!" says Basil Botha President and CEO of Northern Iron.

"In the first 10 months of 2012 China produced 660 million tonnes of steel and that's 47% of the world total. In the coming years it could grow to more than 50%".

As part of China's 12th 5 Year Plan, there is pressure to reduce energy consumption per unit of steel production by 21%. This will require cleaner more economical steel making processes and greater use of metallics. These materials use about 60% less energy per tonne of steel and they also significantly reduce emissions, slag and ash. Our current order book, which consist of multiple off-take agreements for hot briquetted iron from Chinese groups, shows that we are planning on coming to the market, subject to project feasibility, at an opportune time."

"Steel making is changing and China is looking to reduce their energy consumption for steel making while simultaneously cleaning up the environment. The video explains how Hot Briquetted Iron contributes to both these objectives."

About The New Iron Age:

The full Trilogy of The New Iron Age story will be released March 6, 2013. Parts 1 to 3 premiered on the following schedule:

                 
        The New Iron Age Broadcast Schedule        
                 
(part one)       The Backbone of Civilization: a history of steel (3:34)          Feb 25, 2013
(part two)          Hot Briquetted Iron: HBI: balancing global metallics supply and demand (5:44)        Feb 27, 2013
(part three)         Ironclad Opportunity: re-starting Canada's historic Griffith iron-ore mine (2:57)        Mar 04, 2013
(trilogy)         The New Iron Age: a cleaner, greener, infinitely more sustainable future (12:08)        Mar 06, 2013
                 

The 12-minute animation, which took eight weeks to complete and involved five animators, is unconventional and at times fantastical - a hybrid style developed en-route to accommodate the delivery of inherently technical information that is not easily visualized.  The steely narrative was voiced by Juno Award-Winning actor-musician Jim Byrnes - whose St. Louis bluesy style seemed made for the project.

About Northern Iron Corp.

The Company is a 100% owner of five iron ore properties in the Red Lake district containing over 500 million tonnes of historical resources with grades ranging from 22% to 31% Fe.  The Red Lake district is situated in an established mining area in Ontario, where the company has two near term development projects, the past producing Griffith mine and the Karas property.

A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources.

The Company is currently working towards the production of HBI, a transportable form of direct reduced iron.  HBI is complementary and a viable metallic alternative to scrap steel. Quality scrap is a critical raw material in the steel making process. With the diminishing supply of quality scrap steel and ever increasing market demand, steel producers around the world will be looking to secure alternative supplies of metallic products.

As part of the business plan, the Company acquired the past producing Griffith mine, which produced pellets and sponge iron (Direct Reduced Iron/DRI) from 1968 to 1986.  The mine was owned and operated by STELCO and supplied pellets and sponge iron to the Hamilton and Nanticoke steel mills in Ontario. The metallurgy of the deposit has been proven over eighteen years of production.

Almost the entire transportation infrastructure is currently in place to both produce HBI and to ship produced HBI into the North American market via rail and lake barges and into Asian markets via rail through the port of Prince Rupert.  Existing infrastructure includes all weather roads, 115kV power line, natural gas line, rail bed and port facilities.

The Company is focusing on de-risking the project by seeking out potential joint venture partners, off-take agreements or a combination thereof.

Cautionary Statement

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the Company's plans and expectations. These plans, expectations, risks and uncertainties are detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with the TSX Venture Exchange and securities regulators.  The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.  No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Website: www.northernironcorp.com
Follow us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

A high resolution jpeg image of the video logo can be found at this link.
(http://www.northernironcorp.com/sites/default/files/thenewironage_highres.png)

 

 

SOURCE Northern Iron Corp.

Copyright 2013 Canada NewsWire