Brockman joins QRN in Pilbara rail study by Rail Express — last...

Brockman joins QRN in Pilbara rail study
by Rail Express — last modified Aug 22, 2012 01:26 PM
— filed under: Weekly Top Stories, Rail
Brockman Resources Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong based Wah Nam International Holdings Limited, has entered into Alliance Study Agreement with QR National and Atlas Iron to undertake a joint evaluation of a fully integrated mine, rail and port logistics solution in Western Australia’s East Pilbara region.




Image: Mark Carter
The Agreement will see QR National, along with junior miners Atlas and Brockman share costs and resources required for the study, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

As a founding member of the North West Infrastructure group, Brockman has been working with fellow NWI members, Atlas and FerrAus towards establishing viable options for the development of the new port facilities at South West Creek in Port Hedland.

At the same time, Brockman, QR National, and Atlas are exploring an end to end rail solution to transport the iron ore from the mines of Brockman and Atlas to Port Hedland.

The mission of NWI is to facilitate the construction of a port facility capable of annually exporting 50 million tonnes (mtpa) of iron ore from the South-West Creek location at the Inner Harbour at Port Hedland, Western Australia. The Western Australian Government has previously made this 50mtpa allocation to support the development plans of the emerging sector of Pilbara iron ore miners.

In April this year Atlas entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding with QR National to progress the feasibility of a 600km multi-user railway, which could cost up to $3.5 billion, in WA’s Pilbara region.

The proposed Pilbara Independent Rail (PIR) Project would connect iron ore deposits owned by Atlas and other companies in the East and South-East Pilbara to Port Hedland, with first haulage earmarked for as early as 2015. The standard-gauge railway would be designed to be expanded progressively in line with shipping allocations at Port Hedland port - Atlas intending to use rail haulage as part of its strategy to grow production from 15mtpa to as much as 46mtpa.


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