Prospective phosphate exporter Legend International Holdings has announced it will be able to export 3.5 million tonnes of phosphate rock on QR's Mount Isa to Townsville rail line and is confident the Federal Government will contribute to the rail upgrades needed to lift capacity to five million tonnes by 2012.
However, a $250 million upgrade for a new eastern access corridor rail link into the Townsville port, which the phosphate project requires, missed out on funding in last week's federal Budget.
HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW
Townsville Enterprise economic development manager Lisa McDonald said yesterday more work needed to be done to secure the phosphate trade.
"The Northern Territory (Government) is talking favourably about a Mount Isa to Tennant Creek line and shipping mineral product out through the port of Darwin," Ms McDonald said.
"It wouldn't take much and if the Queensland Government doesn't take this seriously people could say they have had enough and send product out through Darwin."
PROJECTS NEED GREEN LIGHT, FAST COAL MISSING RAIL LINK STALLS
Mining magnate `Diamond Joe' Gutnick, president and chief executive of Legend, told the Townsville Bulletin last year his company had settled on Townsville as the export port for its giant phosphate rock project.
The company controls tenements in the Georgina Basin in northwest Queensland with combined historical deposits of more than one billion tonnes of rock, averaging 16 per cent phosphate.
The rock is used to produce fertiliser for crops and mostly will be exported to India's largest fertiliser producer and distributor, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Corporation, a co-operative of more than 50 million farmers.
The company is working towards an aggressive timetable to begin exports of 500,000 tonnes of phosphate rock in the last quarter of 2009, ramping up to full production in 2012.
Townsville Enterprise had lodged a submission for federal funding for the Mount Isa to Townsville rail line. Ms McDonald said it seemed governments and Queensland Rail were not taking the need to upgrade the line as seriously as they should.
Ms McDonald said the 1km-long trains Legend needed to use to meet its capacity would not fit in the city's rail yards.
At present, they could potentially block the Boundary St rail crossing, causing traffic chaos.
She said flooding closed the Mount Isa line for six weeks during the wet season, costing the minerals trade an estimated $38 million a week.
"We are very disappointed (the rail line) was not identified in the Budget," she said.
"Regional Australia did not do well out of the Budget at all."
Independent MP for Kennedy Bob Katter said the rail line was specifically mentioned in Infrastructure Australia's national infrastructure priorities.
Mr Katter said he had met QR executives recently and they were far from definite on how much and what they wanted.
"You can't ask the Government to put a figure in the Budget when there was no figure," he said.
A QR spokesman said QR's bulk freight subsidiary, ARG, and its infrastructure subsidiary, QR Network, were negotiating with Legend International about haulage and access agreements for the company's project.
"QR Network is upgrading the capacity of the Mount Isa to Townsville railway line to allow new projects like this to proceed when commercial agreement is reached," the spokesman said.
"The upgrades are in accordance with the Mount Isa – Townsville Rail Infrastructure Master Plan which describes how the capacity of this network will be increased.
"ARG is working with existing customers and prospects like Legend to build its rail haulage business in northwest Queensland and support mineral and industry development in this part of the state."
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