should double next month, page-3

Sunday Times (Perth)

Pilbara ore site wrangle

By Robin Bromby
12nov05

CAZALY Resources is looking increasingly like a feisty terrier with fangs sunk into a large backside, in this case Rio Tinto's.

The Perth-based junior has upped the rhetoric in its bid to grab a prospective iron ore property in the Pilbara from Rio and its partners, Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and Wright Prospecting.

Rio was late putting in a renewal application after its licence expired on August 28 - and Cazaly opportunistically whipped in its own application.

Now the state Government has to decide what to do: declare the prospect vacant and hand it over to Cazaly, or agree to Rio's application that State Development Minister Alan Carpenter has the discretion to renew its licence, even though the application was late.

But Cazaly is not sitting idly by while Mr Carpenter ponders.

It announced yesterday all the work it had been doing on what it calls its Shovelanna property, 25km from the huge Newman iron ore mine.

Just in case Mr Carpenter misses the point, Cazaly managing director Nathan McMahon pointed out the difference between his company and Rio in a stock exchange announcement.

Rio had held the property for 16 years but never drilled a hole - let alone done any geotechnical, hydrological, metallurgical or other studies that suggested it had plans to develop the site tenements. His company, by contrast, had completed a scoping study, planned a 40,000m drilling program, and carried out geological mapping.

Mr McMahon said he could not figure what Rio was up to, considering its nearest operation was 100km away. "Frankly, I think they're taking the piss," he said. "Collingwood hasn't won a grand final since 1990 and Rio hasn't drilled a hole here since they got it in 1990."

Cazaly has already been laying plans in anticipation of the nod from Mr Carpenter.

It was looking at trucking iron ore from Shovelanna to Port Hedland while it built its own railway. Or it might process the ore at the mine gate.

"The first iron ore could be exported from Port Hedland within 30 months of the tenement being granted," Cazaly's statement said.