@treefeller - I do not think that the success or otherwise of a deep water port at Myponie Point will mean that Hawsons will not go ahead.
I get the impression that SA have been wanting a deep water port for mining resources for some time, but it has not been economical as other projects have been much smaller than 20Mtpa. Therefore, I think that there are good prospects of a deep water port being a reality. However, I am willing to play along and assume that for some reason a deep water port does not go ahead for some reason and consider what HIO would do.
In those circumstances HIO would have completed a BFS for 20 Mtpa mining operation. I would think that everything at the mine would stay the same with respect to mining and processing for 20 Mtpa. The slurry pipe would head back towards Broken Hill as planned in the 2017 PFS to then be loaded on to rail. Yes, there is only current capacity for 10-12 Mtpa capacity on rail - but additional rail sidings or similar could be built to increase capacity to get the ore to a port.
As far as a port goes, there may need to be more than one port to get 20 Mtpa of product shipped. This could be a combination of Port Pirie, Port Playford, Whyalla (and I think there may be another port option on the Whyalla side).
Yes, there will be some additional operational costs in transporting by rail as opposed to slurry pipeline to port, but the overall construction costs are likely to be less than building a new slurry pipeline to port and a new port.
My point being, that if the Myponie Point deep water point did not go ahead for some reason, Hawsons still has options for a 20 Mtpa operation (and they could even fall back to 10Mtpa as a starting solution). Therefore, HIO has options and the demand for the product will get it to a port - new or existing.
HIO Price at posting:
40.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
