The possibility of Atlas Iron losing their Port Allocation at Port Hedland was of some concern to me this week when I read the articles, so never one to be afraid of asking, I put the question to the Management of Atlas Iron and they responded. Below is their response paraphrased.
They said that this is a bit of an old story that has been dragged up again.
They said that each port developer in Hedland is subjected to some form of development timeframe, to stop port users warehousing capacity. As Atlas negotiates the conversation of the NWI port allocation to a development agreement, development timelines are part of that. No date has been agreed and it is just one part of a broad range of issues and opportunities that are part of that discussion.
They said that they still maintains that if Government wants to deliver on their policy position of maintaining an allocation primarily for the junior and mid tier scene, there is no point in presenting unreasonable development timelines. In their discussions with the senior levels of Government they understand that some flexibility is required to facilitate the port (and rail for that matter). In fact, the ‘staged’ development they are referring to is the general direction that the discussion is taking and nothing in that is of concern to them.
AGO Price at posting:
$1.14 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
