Pilbara juniors sign up for fight John Phaceas February 20, 2007
FOURTEEN prospective Pilbara iron ore miners are joining forces to fight for access to transport infrastructure in the region, including the massive port and rail networks of miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
The so-called Pilbara Iron Ore Alliance will aim 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, launched last year to represent start-up iron ore miners in Western Australia's mid-west, especially in relation to co-ordinating their infrastructure needs.
At a secret meeting at the West Perth headquarters of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies last week, representatives of the 14 iron ore juniors met to talk tactics.
It was initiated by Atlas Iron chief executive David Flanagan, whose company is racing Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group to become the first new iron ore miner in the Pilbara in more than two decades. Atlas hopes to commission its 1 million tonnes a year Pardoo hematite mine near Port Hedland early in 2008.
The companies represented at 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 for its exclusion was Fortescue, which has been battling to open the Pilbara rail networks of BHP and Rio, and has pledged to open its own port and rail assets to third party users.
It is understood Fortescue was not invited as it is an infrastructure owner in its own right.
Alliance members are understood to be sensitive to any perception they are aligned with Fortescue, complicating access negotiations with BHP and Rio given the ongoing legal battle by Mr Forrest's group 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.
The appeal was filed after the Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, last year ignored a recommendation by the National Competition Council to open up the railway after intensive lobbying by BHP and Rio.
Mr Flanagan said the first meeting of the group had been positive. He said that formalising the alliance would take at least a month.
"If we get 10-15 companies in an alliance, suddenly there are 15,000 shareholders … all of whom vote," he said. "So Government is more likely to listen to you."
Cape Lambert chief executive Tony Sage said the alliance could significantly enhance the development of a junior iron ore sector in the Pilbara.
"We see a huge advantage in having one voice up there, rather than having 12 or 13 different companies saying something," he said from Beijing, where he is talking to prospective backers for his company's namesake magnetite project near Wickham.
The West Australian
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