No surprises Barnett missed his own deadline but it seems an...

No surprises Barnett missed his own deadline but it seems an FMG/AQA joint development is looking more and more likely and the WA Government still adamant about third party access to the Port. Hopefully Stokesy plays his hand well and gets us an allocation...

Fortescue Metals Group stakes out rail link to Anketell

FORTESCUE Metals Group has given another clear indication it wants to deal itself into exporting through the proposed Anketell Port in the near term, staking out a potential rail corridor from its Solomon iron ore hub to the port.

FMG lodged more than 40 tenement applications with the Department of Mines and Petroleum just before Christmas, which together appear to map out a rail corridor from its Solomon development to Aquila Resources’ proposed port at Anketell Point in the Pilbara.

FMG has gone quiet on the proposal in recent months, after spending much of the last year sparring with Aquila over the size of the initial development, and who would be the lead developer for the project.

Aquila boss Tony Poli told the reporters at the company’s annual general meeting in November Aquila had put a joint development proposal to FMG over the port development. FMG is yet to respond to that claim.

Both companies are also waiting on an announcement by Premier Colin Barnett over the preferred proponent. That decision is still expected to be made shortly, though Mr Barnett failed to meet his self imposed goal of delivering it before Christmas.

Aquila gave ground on the preferred size of the initial development in November, agreeing to a State Government request for a redesign to allow for a 100 million tonne per year initial capacity.

The company, which wants to begin shipping ore from its West Pilbara project as early as 2014, has signalled it wants 50mtpa for its own use, with the remainder available either for Fortescue or any of the other iron ore juniors with ambitions in the region.








http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/fortescue-metals-group-stakes-out-rail-link-to-anketell/story-e6frg2qc-1226235928032