oakajee plan b, page-13

Hws
I'm not totally sure why you posted that document which was after the they received tender....yeah I know they have spent 250mil plus to get oakajee to this point ..the whole reason they had to do a cost feasibility last year June was they were asked to by the premier due too their delays & cost blow outs ..their model was also a high profit tariff model when having to come up with the cost blowouts "I believe "they try to recoup some of those cost through the companies that signed on to use the infrastructure through their tariffs...hence the reason sinosteel closing their plant a week before Mit/mmx had to come out with their cost feasibility ...

This was never really going to work without Chinese input ,fancy giving it to the Japanese when most the Chinese are involved in most those mines to me it must've been political ..

Here's the full Australian article..






Miners work on plan B to save Oakajee

by: Andrew Burrell
From:The Australian
November 10, 201212:00AM

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MINERS in Western Australia's Mid-West are poised to join forces against the Japanese developer of the stricken $5.9 billion Oakajee port and rail project through a rival infrastructure plan that would open up the state's next iron ore province for exports but keep the venture in Australian hands.

Padbury Mining chief executive Gary Stokes told The Weekend Australian that the Oakajee plan in its present form was "dead" and mining companies in the region would now begin serious work on a plan B that had been kept under wraps for months.

Mr Stokes named the companies involved in the plan as Sinosteel Midwest Corporation, Gindalbie Metals, Cashmere Iron, Ferrowest, Golden West Resources and Padbury.

He said most of the miners had Chinese backing, and investment from China would be a key part of any rival infrastructure plan.

Talks had been held with Chinese parties and non-disclosure agreements had been signed with Australian infrastructure providers, he said.








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However, Sinosteel and Gindalbie last night distanced themselves from Mr Stokes's comments, suggesting any talks remained at a preliminary stage.

Oakajee Port & Rail (OPR), which is owned by Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi, this week sacked most of its staff and effectively put the Oakajee project on hold due to long-stalled talks with China aimed at saving the project.

Mitsubishi also owns Crosslands Resources, the developer of the Jack Hills mine in the Mid-West.

Mr Stokes said Crosslands was the only major miner in the Mid-West not involved in the talks aimed at formulating an alternative plan, but he said the company was welcome to join in.

Any new venture would be 51 per cent-owned by Australian superannuation funds and other long-term investors, with the rest likely to be owned by Chinese interests.

"The ownership has to be Australian," he said. "It's the elephant in the room - the Chinese understand that."

Mr Stokes said Padbury was well placed to push ahead with an alternative solution because it owned the intellectual property (IP) on a multi-user rail line and deepwater port at Oakajee.

The junior miner acquired the IP last year for $2.25 million from Chinese-backed Yilgarn Infrastructure, which lost a government tender to build the project in 2008.

Mr Stokes said the alternative plan would involve lower tariffs and lower capital costs than the OPR plan, which had suffered severe cost blowouts.

He insisted the IP included financial modelling and designs that had been updated.

But sources close to Mitsubishi rubbished the Padbury plan, saying it was based on outdated IP that would not meet the requirements of the West Australian government.

The rival plan could also be hit by turbulence next month when a Perth magistrate rules on whether Mr Stokes and former WA premier Brian Burke are guilty of charges of disclosing official secrets.

The charges relate to when Mr Stokes was deputy director-general of WA's Department of Industry and Resources before he was forced to stand down over his links to Mr Burke, who was acting as a lobbyist.

Gindalbie chairman George Jones has previously said he is working on a plan B for Oakajee that would involve a staged development.

But a Gindalbie spokesman last night denied the company itself was part of any formal group working on an infrastructure plan.

Sinosteel Midwest Corporation general manager Phil Allsopp said talks on an alternative path to developing Oakajee had so far been preliminary.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said on Thursday that he was surprised at the extent of the "total breakdown" between Japan and China as part of a diplomatic dispute over the ownership of islands in the East China Sea.

But Mr Barnett said he believed that OPR could still attract Chinese investment.

The Premier added that he hoped to act as a potential peace-broker between the parties in the dispute.