THE goal of a group of iron ore juniors to export through Port Hedland took a major step forward this week after the wrap-up of a scoping study into the development of two new multi-user berths at the increasingly congested Pilbara port.
Last year, the North West Iron Ore Alliance (NWIOA) successfully won the right for its four members – Atlas Iron, BC Iron, Brockman Resources and FerrAus – to access two berths and associated infrastructure in Port Hedland’s inner harbour.
This week, the industry body completed its scoping study into the development of the two berths, which will have up to 50-million-tonnes iron-ore export capacity per year from 2013.
NWIOA deputy chair and chief executive officer Dr Justin Walawski said the study confirmed the plans for developing the inner harbour were "robust" and would "facilitate the emergence of a new generation of iron ore producers beginning with the NWIOA".
“We will immediately commence work on the pre-feasibility study [into the project] and we are hopeful to have the first draft by May-June,” Walawski told MiningNewsPremium.
“We will go out to tender for the pre-feasibility study although that hasn’t been decided upon yet by the four managing directors but I would assume that it will be something that they will consider fairly carefully,” he said.
“We are also just waiting on some communication from the Port Hedland Port Authority as to the two berths to confirm the allocation – and the way the allocation is structured.”
Walawski said the alliance’s 50Mtpa Port Hedland project compared favourably with the 35Mtpa Oakajee port development in Western Australia’s Mid West region.
“People are talking about other projects, Oakajee is a clear example, but this is a really big project that the alliance is looking at, and it will be a great if the juniors can get their act together and export through Port Hedland,” he said.
NWIOA project director Chris Davis said the scoping study and simulation modelling showed the multi-user inner-harbour export facility was capable of handling 50Mtpa.
“Our study also confirms the Port Hedland Port Authority study projections of a workable port capacity of 320 million tonnes per annum,” Davis said.
The news comes after The West Australian reported earlier in the week that the WA government’s $225-million Utah Point development on Finucane Island at Port Hedland was close to receiving final ministerial approval.
The multi-user berth is designed to ease capacity constraints in the inner harbour and will ramp-up capacity at the port by upwards of 17Mtpa. It is expected to be finished by the second quarter of 2010.
The development received approval from the Environmental Protection Authority in January, subject to the condition of removing ore stockpiles from the west end of Port Hedland in a bid to reduce local dust and noise.
In another move to reduce capacity constraints in Port Hedland’s inner harbour, BHP Billiton has flagged the development of a 400Mtpa outer-harbour facility, called the Quantum project, with BHP allocated approximately 200Mtpa of the capacity while the remainder will be allocated to other miners.
The NWIOA, which was formed in 2007, has been pushing for rail and port access deals for its members and has previously thrown its weight behind Fortescue Metals Group’s controversial drive to secure third-party rail access to BHP and Rio Tinto’s rail lines in the Pilbara.
One of the alliance members, Atlas Iron, began shipping iron ore from Port Hedland in December only weeks after it began mining at its Pardoo project.
The company mined 167,190t in the December quarter and shipped 60,154t.
Atlas hopes to export 1Mt from Pardoo during its first year of operation, increasing to 3Mtpa the year after, 6Mtpa by 2010 and 12Mtpa by 2012.
BC Iron is targeting 1.5Mtpa at its Nullagine project in the Pilbara and is on schedule to wrap up a feasibility study within the next six months.
The iron ore junior recently signed a minimum five-year offtake arrangement with Sydney-based Tennant Metals and is currently finalising rail access with Fortescue Metals Group.
Meantime, Brockman Resources is currently completing a pre-feasibility study on a 15Mtpa operation at its Marillana iron ore project in the Pilbara from 2012, ramping up to 25Mtpa in 2015.
FerrAus is currently looking at production options and will carry out a pre-feasibility study on a 2-5Mtpa “fast-track” to production in 2010, a scoping study on a 10Mtpa operation in 2012, and a concept study on a large-scale 20Mtpa operation in 2014.
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