That is correct, their lease is still subject to approval (as...

That is correct, their lease is still subject to approval (as the announcement states) and 'any application will be judged on its merits'.

However Atlas still have environmental approvals, which I imagine are one of the main prerequisites to obtain a lease from the WA Govt.

So when the announcement says any firm lease is subject to approval they're not saying anything new, because this was always the case. Even Atlas confirms this in their announcement.

However, any new application would need the preliminary approvals, that only Atlas have, and which would take considerable time for any new applicant to obtain.

CE, Twiggy and Gina would be well aware of what final red tape is required to bring these port berths online, so I refuse to accept that this 'clarification' by the WA govt would have caught any one of them by surprise.

Though it seems that the market was caught by surprise and that's why I topped up at 3.6c this afternoon. If Twiggy thinks it's worth 4c, then who am I to knock back 3.6?

That's my take on it...