The Early Days

The Metal Group Pty Ltd, the Company's majority shareholder, acquired Allied Mining & Processing in 2003. Soon after, the shareholders, with Andrew Forrest as CEO, voted to change Allied Mining and Processing's name to Fortescue Metals Group and enter into the iron ore infrastructure industry.

At the time, Allied Mining & Processing held substantial tenements at Mt Nicholas and promptly acquired Iron Ore Australia Pty Ltd - along with its Mt Lewin tenements - under the Fortescue banner.

The scene was set for the planning of both open-access port and rail infrastructure and a mine-site to begin.

In 2002/03, many analysts predicted a rise in iron ore prices of up to 40 per cent, with long-term demand expected to remain strong on the back of east-Asian growth. The infrastructure in the Pilbara region was insufficient to cope with such increases in tonnage and thus Fortescue aimed to become the first major iron ore entrant in 40 years.

Fortescue has gone from strength to strength since these early days; many of the major milestones are listed below.

Recent Historical Milestones

DATE	MILESTONE
May 2003	Fortescue acquires first Christmas Creek tenements. Subsequent Christmas Creek tenements are acquired in March 2004. First Cloudbreak tenements acquired. Subsequent Cloudbreak tenements were acquired in November 2003.
Oct 2004	Iron ore sales agreement with Hebei Wenfeng Iron ore sales agreement with Ping Xiang Iron & Steel
Nov 2004	Infrastructure State Agreement
Jan 2005	Fortescue raises A$70 million through convertible note issue
Feb 2005	Fortescue discovers significant iron ore mineralisation in the Cloudbreak project area
Oct 2005	Fortescue signs sales agreements representing 38 per cent of initial planned production of 45 Mt/a Native Title Agreements Environmental Stage A Trial mining begins at Cloudbreak deposit
Dec 2005	Mining State Agreement - Environmental Stage B
Feb 2006	Commencement of earth works at port site
Apr 2006	Environmental Stage C
Jul 2006	Federal Environmental Approval Fortescue signs a Subscription Agreement with Leucadia National Corporation
Aug 2006	Fortescue settles A$3.2 billion capital raising and $2.7 billion debt underwriting
Oct 2006	Railway through Woodstock Abydos
Nov 2006	Detailed Proposals for Port and Rail Special Licence Issue Railway construction commences
Dec 2006	Detailed Proposals for Mining Approval WISCO Offtake agreement
Mar 2007	Iron ore sales agreement with Baosteel Fortescue contracts 100 per cent of initial 45 Mt/a
May 2007	FMGL joins MSCI Index Iron ore sales agreement with Tangshan Fengli Agreement
Jul 2007	Institutional equity placement $504,000,000 raised
Aug 2007	Fortescue joins S&P/ASX 100 index
Oct 2007	China Office Opened Fortescue began commercial mining at Cloudbreak
Nov 2007	Fortescue announced an Inferred Resource estimate of 1.014 billion tonnes (56% Fe) for the Serenity Area of Solomon. This was subsequently upgraded to include a further 700 million tonnes (56% Fe) of Inferred Resource for the Solomon East Project area.
Mar 2008	Fortescue Metals Group joined the S&P ASX 50.
Apr 2008	Construction of the Cloudbreak to Port Hedland Railway completed.
May 2008	Fortescue's first shipment of ore loaded at its Herb Elliott Port.
July 2008	Project completion accomplished.
October 2008	10 millionth tonne shipped from the Herb Elliott Port.
November 2008	Fortescue Rail makes the 500th journey from Cloudbreak to Herb Elliott Port.