Murchison, Mitsubishi Increase Planned Oakajee Port Capacity By 29%
March 18 2010 - 12:36AM
Dow Jones News
Murchison Metals Ltd. (MMX.AU) and joint venture partner
Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) said Thursday they have increased the
planned initial capacity of their A$4 billion Oakajee iron ore port
development by 29% to 45 million metric tons a year and identified
three potential foundation customers.
The pair are partners in Oakajee Port & Rail, or OPR, which
is developing the new port to service the emerging midwest iron ore
producing region in Western Australia state.
OPR Chief Executive John Langoulant said the increase of planned
initial capacity to 45 million tons from the previous level of 35
million tons followed strong interest from regional iron ore
miners.
"The level of iron ore tonnage nominations we received last
month from regional miners made it clear that there is a real case
to consider greater start-up capacity than we had originally
anticipated," he said.
OPR also announced that it had selected three potential
foundation customers for the mine including Crosslands resources,
which is another joint venture between Murchison and Mitsubishi
focused on developing the Jack Hills iron ore project.
The other two customers were Sinosteel Corp., for material from
its Weld range project, and Karara Mining, a joint venture between
Gindalbie Metals Ltd. (GBG.AU) and Anshan Iron & Steel
Group.
Australia's major iron ore producers, BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP)
and Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP), have been rapidly expanding their iron
ore ports in response to growing demand in recent years.
Now smaller producers are also pressing ahead with their own
port projects, with the Western Australian state government this
month backing the planned Anketell port in the Pilbara region to be
developed by Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FMG.AU), China
Metallurgical Group Corp. and API Management, a joint venture
between Aquila Resources Ltd. (AQA.AU) and private investor
AMCI.
-By Alex Wilson, Dow Jones Newswires: 613-9292-2094;
alex.wilson@dowjones.com
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