The ultimate parent entity and controlling party is The Sentient Group (incorporated in the Cayman Islands), a manager of closed-end private equity funds specialising in global investments in the natural resource industries, which at 30 June 2020 owned 74.03% of the issued ordinary fully paid shares of Iron Road Limited.

[3][2]: 5  In December 2020, the company announced that former South Australian Premier and farming advocate, Rob Kerin, had been appointed project chair.

[5] Infrastructure for the Central Eyre Iron Project was planned to be built by Iron Road Limited's construction partner, the China Railway Group Limited, the largest infrastructure construction contractor in the world, whose projects had included the 2000 kilometres (1200 miles) US$5 billion Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

[5] However, Iron Road's interim report of the half year ended 31 December 2018 stated: "Despite ongoing contact with China Railway Group, the rate of progress has been unacceptable and as a consequence the Company reinvigorated introductions and discussions with various parties that potentially have an interest in the company, the CEIP or select components of the CEIP".

[5] The company stated that it would produce a high quality, low impurity iron concentrate that would serve as a clean, superior blending product for steel manufacturers, and that an output of 24 million tonnes per annum was planned over almost 30 years.

[1]: 6 Construction costs and schedule risk were expected to be reduced significantly by building the processing plant as large self-contained modules in China and commissioning them before being transported to Australia.

[18] The company also stated that it contemplated "staged construction and commissioning of a globally competitive grain terminal and export facility at Cape Hardy".

[2][20] Named Portalis, the project was to be a joint venture between Iron Road Limited, Eyre Peninsula Co-operative Bulk Handling, and Macquarie Capital.

The company has estimated that the project has mineralisation capable of supporting a small to medium scale magnetite mine with an output of 1–2 million tonnes per annum.

A scoping study was completed in 2013, but the company stated subsequently that it had conducted little further evaluation because it was focusing "all effort" on its Central Eyre Iron Project.