“
Chris Ellison's Mineral Resources, which sparked the bidding war for Atlas, has already lodged a proposal to develop one of two berths earmarked for South West Creek.” (As per above story August 8, 2018)
In relation to that sentence from your post, the timing is also interesting :
As long term background for anyone interested, although I am not certain, it seems the junior miners applied for and secured ‘junior access only ‘ at the Port Hedland port areas of Utah Point and South West Creek as a result of their Government submissions back in April 2016.
“
a) Utah Point must remain exclusively reserved for junior miners with no ability for the Operator to grant access to non-juniors” http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/commit.nsf/(Evidence Lookup by Com ID)/125338F0F77AB1B648257FA3001494BE/$file/ls.ppa.160426.sub.005.Atlas Iron Limited.pdfhttp://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/commit.nsf/(Evidence Lookup by Com ID)/E4211FB3E486542648257FA300144769/$file/ls.ppa.160426.sub.003.Brockman Mining Limited.pdf“
Brockman is continually looking for ways and means to develop a port at South West Creek”In relation to more current events:
The negotiations with Mineral Resources; reported above, were presumably underway since June 8, 2018 as per this MR announcement
http://member.afraccess.com/media?id=CMN://6A886911&filename=20180608/MIN_01989119.pdfSee third-from-last paragraph:
View attachment 1244354On June 28 Atlas attributes “ no value “ to the port
https://thewest.com.au/business/min...west-infrastructure-port-berths-ng-b88880185zThen on June 30 there was the reported “limbo” situation:
https://thewest.com.au/business/ber...-still-in-limbo-over-atlas-sale-ng-b88882373z“Mr McGowan noted yesterday that South West Creek was allocated to North West Infrastructure (a joint venture between Atlas and the Chinese controlled Brockman Mining) “some time ago”.
“They obviously haven’t delivered,” he said. “It hasn’t happened as expected and so we’ve been advising them for a long period of time that their opportunity there had ceased and so therefore we will now engage in that consultation with the industry.”Four weeks later on July 27 the Mineral Resources owned Polaris and Brockman go into a Joint Venture..:
https://au.investing.com/news/stock...e-with-mineral-resources-unit-polaris-1210842https://hotcopper.com.au/documentdownload?id=uOMxKKzFkiWRTLKhOROKAxjvTDYC6gy+yhaZovRyke92GA==-“
The product will then be reclaimed via bucket wheel reclaimer, conveyed to the export facility that MRL intends to construct and operate within the inner harbour of Port Hedland where it will be loaded onto Capesize carriers for export to Asian markets.”Same day AFR says :
MinRes sets sail with Brockman iron ore deal“
Chris Ellison's Mineral Resources has strengthened its claim to prized export capacity at Port Hedland after pulling off a deal with Brockman Mining aimed at supplying iron ore to its proposed light rail network and Cape-sized berth development.
The joint venture will unlock iron ore from Brockman's long-stranded Marillana project. It will also help to underpin MinRes' core mining services business as well as its plans to invest $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion in the Pilbara Infrastructure Project.....”The rest is locked to me because I haven’t joined yet...
https://www.copyright link/business/mineral-resources-pulls-off-deal-with-brockman-20180726-h137epOn August 7
https://thewest.com.au/business/min...ines-downplays-atlas-iron-stake-ng-b88920907z“Fortescue has sought clarification related to Atlas’ port access rights to proposed new berths at South West Creek at Port Hedland when it sought on the issue.
The government has confirmed that Atlas, through its North West Infrastructure joint venture, had lost exclusive rights to develop the port facilities but it is still unclear whether it will restrict access to those miners loosely defined as “juniors”.
In June, Premier Mark McGowan said the government would speak to the industry to provide some clarity on South West Creek “in coming months”.
“We’ve welcomed the government’s comments regarding those berths and they’ve clarified the fact that they’ll consult with industry around those berths in South West Creek so we certainly expect to participate in that consultation process,” Ms Gaines said today.
“I couldn’t put a timeframe on it.
“Those berths at Port Hedland are very important infrastructure assets for Western Australia so I would expect there’ll be a full consultation process which will take as long as it takes.”Followed by the story you quote above...
I guess another interesting thing is that Fortescue doesn’t seem altogether thrilled that Mineral Resources has put in its development proposal and possibly also that it has secured a JV with a second involved junior ?
For a company with a very quiet profile on disallowed there *does* seem to be a fair bit if behind the scenes action
(20min delay)