millions flow into roy hill project

Millions flow into Roy Hill project
January 21, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/millions-flow-into-roy-hill-project-20140120-314u8.html

Gina Rinehart has continued to tip millions into the Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia, as confidence in the project builds on the back of loans secured in December.
Documents recently submitted to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show that a subsidiary of Ms Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting made another downpayment of $251.6 million on the giant iron ore mine, port and rail project. The payment was made via Hanrine Holdings, which was incorporated into the Roy Hill deed in October, and was accompanied by a smaller payment of almost $15 million from her joint venture partner POSCO.
Japanese company Marubeni and China Steel Corporation are also involved in the joint venture. It is these joint venture partners that have dominated the downpayments made on the project in recent months.
Hancock Prospecting will own 70 per cent of the mammoth project, which took a significant step forward when it won $US694.4 million ($789 million) worth of funding from the US Export Import bank in December.
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Funding from similar agencies in Korea has also been confirmed, helping the joint venture partners towards their goal of raising close to $US7 billion worth of debt from government and private banks around the world.
Roy Hill was not the only one of Ms Rinehart's projects making news on Monday, with her coal joint venture in Queensland securing the services of one of Rio Tinto's top coal executives. Hancock Prospecting is developing a coal project in the Galilee Basin with Indian company GVK, and the joint venture will now be spearheaded by former Rio man Darren Yeates.
Mr Yeates was recently the public face of Rio Tinto's battle with the NSW government over the expansion of the Mt Warkworth mine, and had noted on several occasions that Australian coal projects were struggling to be globally competitive.
The appointment will allow previous boss Paul Mulder - who was on secondment from Hancock Prospecting - to return to the Hancock fold.


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