$7B WPIOP Inked

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-ore-price-slump/story-e6frg9df-1227054922507
Port project backed despite iron ore price slump

• by: Sarah-Jane Tasker
• From: The Australian
• September 11, 2014 9:40AM

THE iron ore price may be tanking, but Korean steel giant Posco and private resources equity house American Metals & Coal International (AMCI) have joined China’s Baosteel Resources to back a new port and rail for a $7 billion iron ore project.

Australia’s Aurizon revealed today that AMCI and Posco had signed up to the infrastructure agreement it has with Baosteel for the West Pilbara iron ore project in Western Australia.

Baosteel got control of that iron ore asset through its $1.4 billion bid for Aquila Resources. Aurizon had teamed up with the Chinese state-owned company on that bid and won the rights to build the port and rail for the Western Australian project.

The companies are targeting first exports for 2017-2018.

“AMCI has been invested in this project since its inception a decade ago and we are pleased past issues are behind us,” Mr Hans Mende, president of AMCI, said.

“The agreement brings together parties that can genuinely underpin delivery of one of the most exciting resource projects on the globe. We’re committed to making this greenfield iron ore project a commercial reality and helping establish a new phase of economic investment in Australia.”

The first stage of the project involves development of a new deepwater port at Anketell and a 280km railway to support at least 40 million tonnes per annum throughput from eight mining areas.

The West Pilbara iron ore project is being developed by the Australian Premium Iron Joint Venture, which is a 50-50 joint venture between Aquila (Baosteel 85 per cent, Aurizon 15 per cent) and AMCI, which in turn is 51-49 owned by AMCI and Posco.