iron ore rich pilbara have all been snapped up

MINING tenements in Western Australia's iron-ore rich Pilbara have all been snapped up in a goldrush-style land grab triggered.

Every piece of ground in the Pilbara that was prospective for minerals has either been granted or is under application, a spokeswoman for Western Australia's Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR) said.

"This is typical of boom times,'' she said.

Fortescue chief financial officer Chris Catlow said that junior and mid-tier iron ore companies had scrambled to secure Pilbara landholdings.

He said this had happened since Fortescue started publicly challenging Rio Tinto Ltd and BHP Billiton Ltd to open up their railways in the region to third parties.

The prospect of getting ore to port and record benchmark iron ore prices had made Pilbara iron ore tenements highly sought after.

"It's hard to get hold of ground,'' Mr Catlow said. "It's only come about since Fortescue initiated its activities.

"Clearly, people are now only interested in looking for iron ore in the Pilbara because there is a prospect of being able to ship it out on open-access infrastructure."