MELBOURNE—Ivernia Inc., barred a year ago from exporting 3 percent of the world's mined lead from Western Australia, is preparing 19,000 metric tons of lead concentrate for shipment pending final government approval.

“We have this concentrate that is already produced, and now it is actually being put in bags, so what is required to start is not much,” Patrick Scott, managing director of Toronto-based Ivernia’s Australian unit, said last week. “We are just waiting for approval, once we get that we should be quite quick in resuming shipments.” He couldn't give a specific time.

The state government gave Ivernia initial approval in January to resume shipments through Fremantle port, rejecting opposition from the town's mayor. Lead, used to make batteries, rose to a record after Ivernia was banned from exporting through the southern port of Esperance last March on environmental concern.

The lead remains on Ivernia’s Magellan mine site after it stopped mining last year and will be ready for shipment once approval is granted, Scott said by phone from Perth last week. A further 9,000 tons of concentrate remains in a storage shed at Esperance and will likely be shipped after approval is granted to start shipping out of Fremantle, he added.

Ivernia plans to ship 150,000 metric tons of concentrate from Fremantle each year to customers in China. Fremantle, 20 kilometers (13 miles) from the state capital, Perth, is one of Australia’s biggest bulk-cargo ports and handles grains, petroleum and mineral sands. (Bloomberg)

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MELBOURNE—Ivernia Inc., barred a year ago from exporting 3 percent of the world's mined lead from Western Australia, is preparing 19,000 metric tons of lead concentrate for shipment pending final government approval.

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