The Government factor.
Western Australia benefitted in the early days from very big mining infrastructure projects the government invested in that allowed various mining areas to develop early on in the states history.
Now the state is blessed with a 50+ year head start on other states in developing in mining sector. They are lucky to have such productive land and lots of it too which helps.
The WA government now reaps the reward of that (as does the federal) with the sheer volume of money and tax generated in the WA mining economy.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise the SA government when asked “would you like a share of the big Iron Ore mining within SA?” would be all ears and happy to help plan how to make that a reality. They question is how much money will they part with to make it happen.
One of Fortescue great battles early on was getting access to the railways owned by RIO and BHP. They tried everything and there was no way in.
“By refusing to share any of their infrastructureBHP and Rio effectively forced Forrest to raise the money to build his own railways, which was to become the catalyst for much of Fortescue future growth.
“ ‘If they had embraced us more we wouldn’t be what we are now... We’d be a little 20million tonne p.a producer begging for space on their infrastructure. But by choosing to block us they forced us to become their nemesis’ “
- from Twiggy by Andrew Burrell
Raises the question of whether the SA govt can see the potential in the Iron Ore mines by MGT and CAP. The benefit to Broken Hill and port Pirie. The increased tax income to help strengthen the states finances and provide for future income. Infrastructure spend that will be repaid and profit for decades and flow through the SA economy.
I hope MGT and CAP are making the most of these arguments and lobbying the govt effectively for assistance and concessions for what ever is possible. Money is cheap and they are happy to spend.
Why not develop and build a new mining exclusive railway to reduce the barriers to production for new SA mining projects.
Particularly if the mining regions boast extremely large resources.
The government is a huge stakeholder who stands to make a lot of money from these ventures. They should rightly contribute to make them a reality
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