rio comments, page-10

With regards to rail there are a few possibilities.

BHP and RIO are planning to increase output substantially and will likely be using the full capacity of their rail themselves.

FMG will have significant spare capacity right up to about 250-300 million tonnes per year so that is one option. Don't forget that allowing BRMs ore on their rail at a price of about $10 per tonne could give them another $50m per year profit for very little outlay (minimal increase in maintenance costs).

Another possibility is that a situation such as with MMX/MIS could occur where a new line could be put in by a number of juniors/mid-caps in the region (likely with Asian backing). BRM now have a big enough resource to entice considerable outside interest in a very beneficial JV (better than MMX/mits), which would give them the cash to fast-track a new rail project. I'm not sure it would necessarily go ahead as the state govt. would likely force FMG to share their rail if it wasn't willing to voluntarily.

Should POL prove up the potential at their Carina tenement or UMC prove a similarly massive resource nearby there will be an awful lot of ore outside the clutches of the "evil two" that the Chinese will be looking to diversify their supply chain with by putting some of their $1.5 trillion of foreign currency into a rail line and a few JVs. Things can happen very fast with enough cash injected (Note a 2800km railway was built across the USA at speeds of up to 16km per day in the 140 years ago without the heavy lifting and earth-moving equipment now available).