no future trucking

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,17645500-462,00.html

OPPOSITION is mounting among business and mining groups in Western Australia over a state government decision to ban a new mine from transporting its ore by road after only nine months of operations.
State Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan has told Midwest Corp it could use the roads to get the ore from the new Koolanooka mine to Geraldton port only until October - and after that it must use rail, even though no locomotives and wagons are available and the line is in poor shape.
It is understood that Midwest is getting influential backing from mining and business groups in trying to change Ms MacTiernan's decision.
There is also a growing fear that the Government's move could alarm China's biggest steelmaker, Sinosteel, which is planning to partly bankroll Midwest's next two mine developments to the tune of $1.5 billion.
Chinese corporations are extremely nervous about governments changing ground rules when large sums are at stake.
Sinosteel had committed to partly bankroll Midwest's two planned new operations - the Koolanooka magnetite mine and the Weld Range haematite mine, both located in West Australia's mid-west region inland from Geraldton
Neither mine plan is affected by the road ban.
Instead, it is Midwest's small-scale iron ore fines mining operation, also at Koolanooka, which has drawn the fire from Ms MacTiernan.
Midwest is within a few weeks of its first iron ore shipment using double road-trains to shift a million tonnes a year.
The company claims it wanted to use the railway line which lies just 19km from the mine -- but the operator of trains on the Morawa-Geraldton line could not provide locomotives, wagons or guarantees of more than one slot a day even if Midwest bought its own trains.
Ms MacTiernan has given Midwest and the train company, Australian Railroad Group (ARG), a month to report back on their progress in resolving the impasse on rail use.
The minister said she could not accept Midwest's plan to truck iron ore for the seven years of the operation because of the cost of road repairs and safety concerns.
Therefore, she had gazetted an order requiring a special licence for any truck transporting ore from a mine within 100km of existing rail lines - and Midwest would get such licences only through to next October.
It is understood that Midwest unsuccessfully scoured the world for suitable narrow gauge wagons that would allow iron ore to be discharged from bottom doors at the port.
The railway is built to the narrow gauge, so ore-carrying wagons from standard gauge railways elsewhere in Australia would not be usable - even if there were any spare.
It seems clear that Ms MacTiernan is trying to force Midwest and ARG to come up with a solution.
The problem is twofold: ARG does not have the rolling stock, and nine months would, say rail industry resources, be an unrealistic timeframe for Midwest to assemble its own train.
Moreover, there are questions about the state of the railway line.
Parts of the railway out to Mullewa are now being upgraded with new rails and sleepers - it is this section that is used to transport iron ore from the Mt Gibson mine near Mullewa.
But the railway beyond that point to Morawa, where Midwest is located, is run down and kept in a state where it can just cope with seasonal grain traffic.