The funds are made available under Fortescue's guaranteed leasing facility with its bank ANZ.

While the miner did not name all nine recipients, it did confirm that the Wirlu-murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation's Wirlu-murra Enterprises arm received A$5.64 million (US$3.74 million) for a plant and equipment for its non-process infrastructure operations, road maintenance and resource definition contract at the Solomon project.

"Fortescue has been working with Wirlu-murra since 2013, and we are delighted to see them grow to be one of the largest Aboriginal businesses in Australia, delivering important employment opportunities for Aboriginal people," Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines said.

Fortescue's A$50 million (US$33 million) initiative was first started in 2018, created to offer financial support and solutions to Aboriginal businesses that supply services to the miner.

Fortescue CFO Ian Wells called sustainable Aboriginal businesses "the key to creating employment and economic opportunities" for everyone in the region.

"Access to capital has been identified by our Aboriginal contracting partners as a barrier to growth, and through our innovative guaranteed leasing facility with ANZ, we are helping to address this challenge by providing practical tools to build long-term capability and capacity."

FMG said that, since the formation of the Billion Opportunities Aboriginal procurement initiative in 2011, it has awarded over A$2.5 billion (US$1.66 billion) in contracts and sub-contracts to Aboriginal businesses and joint ventures.