From today's NR from Lamalee

Lamelee PEA highlights:

• Net present value of $529.9-million (pretax) at an 8-per-cent discount rate;
• Internal rate of return of 15.4 per cent (pretax);
• Pretax payback estimated at 5.8 years (years from production start-up);
• Mine life of 20 years at five million tonnes per year of iron concentrate;
• Initial project capex of $816.7-million;
• Total average operating cost of $54.81 per tonne of concentrate;
• Conservative long-term price assumptions $79.50 (U.S.) per tonne, FOB Sept-Iles;
• Accuracy of the estimate minus 15 per cent plus 30 per cent.

From this it would seem fairly close to competitive in cost with your figure of $50/ton for the big boys. This is especially so since they claim their product will be very high quality

From the same NR

"Our confidence in the success of the project stems also, in part, on the superior quality of the iron concentrate to be produced by Lamelee which opens many markets. It needs to be emphasized that the concentrate is needed by Asian steel mills to blend with concentrate from other producing regions, notably Australia and Brazil, to ensure efficiency of production."