Key project milestones
So RH has plenty of Iron Ore. It has needed a route to market from the deposits to a suitable port. So far RH has not had suitable road from deposit to the sealed Red Dog Hwy including a suitable road base (which does not need to be sealed with black top) to be completed under Red Dog Phase 4. WA Main Roads say construction of Phase 4 with commence late this year. This is good news and we must expect conformation soon that the unsealed highway will be constructed up to the RH deposits turnoff by planned haulage start date. RH will also need to construct a haul road from the unsealed Red Dog P4 to the deposits. I do not believe it is a major long lead task so doable. So, I suggest the connecting road requirements are now low risk.
The other major project need was a suitable port with sufficient throughput to support project start up and projected growth. Today announcement signals the start of that conformation. It is not difficult to understand the port authority reluctance to commit much capacity to a junior company that has not completed a DFS/BFS and is yet to secure finance. The big question to me is whether RH can find others currently using the port that has spare capacity that can be filled by RH. I will contact SM ask about this soon.
I would suggest that any financier would require assurances that the necessary port capacity and necessary haul roads will be available and support project planned growth.
So, today announcement is a very important step forward. There are various other approvals etc., finance and negotiations that need to be completed before binding contracts are finalised. So, too early for blinding contracts.
I note that there was good opening trades on the ASX this morning as the project risk are being mitigated.
