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Business Iron ore alliance aims to pressure miners for infrastructure access JOHN PHACEAS, PERTH 477 words 19 February 2007 The Age First 1 English © 2007 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.theage.com.au Not available for re- distribution.
FOURTEEN prospective Pilbara iron ore miners have formed a fledgling alliance to fight for access to critical transport infrastructure in the region, including the massive port and rail networks of mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
The so-called Pilbara Iron Ore Alliance will aim to present a united front to lobby for infrastructure access and investment to unlock hundreds of millions of tonnes of "stranded" iron ore resources in the region.
The group is expected to adopt a similar approach to that of the Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance, which was launched last year to present a united voice in representing start-up iron ore miners in the state's mid-west, especially in relation to co-ordinating their conflicting infrastructure requirements.
At a meeting at the West Perth headquarters of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies last week, representatives from the 14 iron ore juniors met to formulate the agenda and core objectives of the alliance.
Last week's meeting was initiated by Atlas Iron chief executive David Flanagan, whose company is racing with Fortescue Metals to become the first new iron ore miner in the Pilbara in more than two decades.
Atlas hopes to commission its boutique 1-million-tonnes-a-year Pardoo hematite mine near Port Hedland early in 2008.
The companies attending the meeting were Atlas, Yilgarn Mining, United Minerals Corp, Aurox Resources, BC Iron, Ausquest, Ferraus Resources, Echelon Resources, Cazaly Resources, Iron Ore Holdings, Aquila Resources, Cape Lambert Iron, Australasian Resources and Polaris Metals.
Notable by its exclusion from the meeting was Fortescue, which has championed the battle to force open the Pilbara rail networks of BHP and Rio, and has pledged to make its own port and rail assets open to third-party users.
It is believed Fortescue was not invited to join because it is an infrastructure owner in its own right, and will be one of the parties likely to be in negotiations with alliance members to transport ore from their respective operations.
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Alliance members are also believed to be sensitive to any perception they are aligned with Fortescue, making access negotiations with BHP and Rio even more difficult given the ongoing legal battle by Fortescue to force open BHP's main Newman railway.
The Federal Court in December ruled that the Newman railway was not exempt from national competition laws, bolstering Fortescue's appeal to the Australian Competition Tribunal to "declare" the railway a service under the Trade Practices Act.
Mr Flanagan yesterday said the first meeting of the group had been positive but it would be at least a month before the alliance was formalised.
"If we get 10-15 companies in an alliance, suddenly there are 15,000 shareholders," he said.
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Mineweb: Seeking access to transport WA iron ore juniors form Pilbara alliance. 525 words 19 February 2007 Mineweb English (c) 2007 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved
(Mineweb.com) -- Fourteen Australian junior iron ore explorers have formed the Pilbara Iron Ore Alliance to lobby for access to transport infrastructure, and investment to unlock hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore resources in the Western Australian region.
Most of Australias iron ore comes from Pilbara. Atlas Iron, formerly Atlas Gold, which owns the Pardoo Iron Ore project in Pilbara, first touted the idea of forming an alliance which would deal with such issues as rail hauling, permits, community consultation and common use infrastructure.
Atlas Managing Director David Flanagan said it would allow companies to share their knowledge and help each other to begin mining. "There are a few stakeholders out there whom this impacts and some of them are sitting on opportunities they dont understand or they are sitting in front of problems and they dont know that someone sitting next door has solved the problem,' he said.
Atlas hopes to become the first new iron ore miner in the region in more than 20 years with Pardoo, which a January pre-feasibility study said could produce 1Mt annually of hematite. Start-up is planned for March 2008.
Currently, mega-miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto own and operate rail networks in the region. The Premier of Western Australia Alan Carpenter said the State Government will fund development of expanded public access berth facilities at the port for the township of Port Hedland. The expansion to 15Mt annually is expected to be completed by March 2008.
Flanagan said the development "provides an avenue for the export of additional iron ore, while allowing new entrants to remain truly independent of the existing majors in the region. Furthermore, it provides a unique opportunity to reduce the existing heavy haulage traffic into the township of Port Hedland.'
The Pilbara Iron Ore alliance is expected to use a similar strategy to the Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance, which presents a united voice for start-up iron ore miners in the Geraldton and Mid West region of Western Australia.
The Australian newspaper, The Age, reported that the new alliance includes Aquila Resources, Aurox Resources, Ausquest, Australian Resources, BC Iron, Cape Lambert Iron, Cazaly Resources, Echelon Resources, Ferraus Resources, Iron Ore Holdings, Polaris Metals, United Minerals Corp., Yilgran Mining, in addition to Atlas.
In an unrelated development, Atlas Iron replaced its Chairman Richard Revelins earlier this month, after he was accused by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission of misleading or deceptive conduct in the trading of Yamana Goldfields shares. David Nixon was appointed as the new chairman.
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