Think this is also a good read....

Think this is also a good read.

http://www.watoday.com.au/business/...on-for-mega-pilbara-mine-20140814-1048qx.html

MinRes are proposed a trans-shipping solution to Baosteel for the Anketell development to cut capex by over half down to around $3bn. Sounds very much like our own plans for Cape Preston East the copy cats.

As I said at the time I think the Baosteel/Aurizon takeover of Aquila really impacted our plans for Bucklands given the Chinese came in with one intention and that is to get an infrastructure solution done as quickly as possible. Once MinRes tried to deal itself into the takeover then it probably spelled out any involvement in Bucklands development for them.

Perhaps given this Stokes has made the decision to just let it go and have Bucklands get swept up in the Baosteel initiative and then leverage the BCI balance sheet to ensure they get a seat at the table in any development deal as it became increasingly obvious they couldnt get a partner to fund all the capex on Bucklands. And then like us count the dividends and effectively bring forward production income.

For BCI it could mean any ongoing capex requirement is really reduced as Cape Preston as an individual development option becomes more and more remote as Super Wealthy says above, whilst at the same time giving BCI commercial flexibility to keep all their options open to get Bucklands into production. Given they gave away half their mine to get access to the FMG rail network its probably a development model they are comfortable with.