first shipment of ore confimred

Well.... this is great news. Hopefully there'll be press there today at the ceremony with the NT Chief Minister.

In summary:

* Roads sealed and completed
* All bridges completed
* 250k tonnes of DSO on the ROM pad
* Loading of first ship to occur on 16th Dec

Here's the annoucement:

The Directors of Western Desert Resources (ASX :WDR) are pleased to provide an update on its wholly owned Roper Bar Iron Ore Project (RBIOP).

The 165km Haul road has been completed and sealed, and the 10 bridges are all completed. All works at the Bing Bong load facility, including installation of the conveyor and associated works are also completed.

At the Mine Site some 250,000 ton of DSO grade material is on the ROM pad, and delivery of the material to Bing Bong via the haul road has commenced.

Loading of the first ship MV Dynasty Shang with DSO grade iron ore is scheduled for 16 December 2013.

At a ceremony today at Bing Bong, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles MLA, will officially open the RBIOP.

Managing Director of WDR, Mr Norm Gardner said today "We have come a long way from discovery to production within a time frame and budget that we are extremely proud of. Anyone who knows what it takes to see a bulk commodity project through to production will be aware of the huge effort that is made by the many people involved in the project. We are now focused on delivering our "Roper Red" Iron ore
to the market. The RBIOP is the largest new mine in the Northern Territory in almost two decades. As a Territory Company, we are proud to be delivering economic outcomes not only for our Shareholders, but the Roper Community and the Territory"