Artcle courtesy of Business News.
Chris Ellison-led Mineral Resources has struck an agreement with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting to jointly pursue the development of a new iron ore export berth at Port Hedland’s South West Creek.
The agreement proposes that Hancock subsidiary Roy Hill Holdings, which already operates two berths at South West Creek, would help develop the new berth and provide rail haulage and port services.
The joint venture represents a change of tack by Mr Ellison, who has previously talked up Mineral Resources’ capacity to develop on its own two new export berths with a combined capacity of 40 million tonnes per annum.
The agreement will likely make it easier for the state government and the Pilbara Ports Authority to assess multiple competing applications for increased capacity at the famously congested inner harbour at Port Hedland.
The port’s biggest users are iron ore miners BHP and Fortescue Metals Group, which have also signalled their desire to expand their shipping capacity (but not necessarily add extra berths).
Mineral Resources needs extra capacity at Port Hedland to support the planned development of its Marillana mine: a four-to-five-year project that will follow the development of the company’s 30mt per annum Ashburton mining hub, which will use a new port at Onslow.
Meanwhile, Hancock’s Roy Hill is working to de-bottleneck its mining, processing, rail and port systems to lift capacity to more than 60mtpa, up from the 57.5mt it shipped last financial year.
In a joint statement, Mineral Resources and Hancock said they were targeting Stanley Point berth three in South West Creek for their proposed export berth.
They noted the project was subject to the Pilbara Ports Authority granting a capacity allocation and development approval.
