Footage reveals state of MinRes’ crucial road ahead of investor visitMark Wembridge, Peter Ker and Mark Di StefanoMay 27, 2025 – 3.59pmSaveShareGift this articleMineral Resources’ 330-tonne road trains are being forced to drive at a third of the usual speed between the company’s flagship Pilbara iron ore mine and a port 147 kilometres to the west, putting in doubt shipping targets set by the Chris Ellison-led business as it seeks to reassure its investors.Footage of the crucial link between Ken’s Bore and the port at Onslow shows trucks travelling down a wet, single lane road with construction on either side. MinRes earlier this year admitted that there were problems with the months-old road, half owned by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and said it would spend $230 million repairing and upgrading it.New images from MinRes’ haul road in the Pilbara. The company is taking analysts to the site on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Ellison will take analysts and investors to the project in a bid to show the progress that the company has made on the road. He spoke to the same group at the MinRes headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. The company’s share price has slid almost 70 per cent in the last year amid concerns about the viability of the road and the cost of repairs.MinRes is also being investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after The Australian Financial Review revealed an alleged offshore tax evasion scheme that enriched Ellison and other executives. The scheme cost shareholders more than $7 million.The haul road is a crucial part of a $3 billion project to build a new mining province in the Pilbara’s west which has been unviable because of the cost of building rail infrastructure given its isolation. Other Pilbara producers – Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue – use rail to connect mines to port.Related QuotesMINMineral Resources$23.750 -1.37%1 year1 dayMay 24Aug 24Nov 24May 250.00020.00040.00060.00080.000Updated: May 27, 2025 – 5.41pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.View MIN related articles But the construction of the Onslow project has saddled MinRes with big debts. To service the $5.8 billion it owes, the company needs regular cash from taking the iron ore along the road to port and to customers.The road’s construction was brought in-house after contractor QH & M Birt walked off the job over concerns about the quality of materials used, while bad weather and poor construction have forced cuts to its iron ore production forecasts. A crucial milestone for MinRes will be for the road to meet a target of hauling 35 million tonnes of iron ore a year, and this week’s investor trip is aiming to restore faith that work is back on track.“With the production ramp-up accelerating in recent weeks, we are well on track to establish Onslow Iron as one of Australia’s premier iron ore operations,” the company told investors last week.MinRes intends to fly the analysts and investors to Onslow with MinRes Air, its private airline that operates an Airbus A320 with the registration VH-8FE, a nod to iron ore’s chemical symbol of FE. When they arrive, the group will visit the port and its fleet of vessels that transport iron ore to larger ships anchored offshore. They will then visit a truck maintenance facility, and take three hours to traverse the road’s length to examine the repairs.In the first three months of this year, MinRes completed 16,211 road train trips, hauling 3.5 million tonnes of iron ore from its Ken’s Bore mine to port at an average load of 218 tonnes. To achieve its annual target of 35 million tonnes, almost 3 million tonnes would need to be hauled each month.MinRes updated the official size of its iron ore resource in the region last week, saying its tenements contained 744 million tonnes of “mineral resources”, up 73 per cent from the last estimate in 2023. Most of the ore in the area contains 56 per cent iron, meaning it will fetch lower prices than most of the ore sold by incumbent Pilbara miners like Rio Tinto and BHP, whose products tend to contain more than 60 per cent iron.MinRes last week appointed Malcolm Bundey as its new non-executive chairman, and said it was in the process of appointing three new directors to replace the three who quit last month. Bundey has been tasked with repairing the miner’s corporate governance and secure a replacement for Ellison, who has told investors he intends to stand down next year.
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(20min delay)