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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Roy Hill iron ore development to starts in 2012 - Ms Rinehart

Wednesday, 13 Jul 2011

The West Australian reported that Australia's richest person Ms Gina Rinehart says she expects construction of her USD 6.6 billion Roy Hill iron ore development in the Pilbara to begin in earnest next year as part of an ambitious timetable to be in production by 2014.

Dredging works in South West Creek, in Port Hedland's inner harbor, are already under way while the Roy Hill project was last week granted a Special Railway Licence by the WA Government for the construction of a 342 kilometer heavy haul link from mine to port.

Ms Rinehart is planning a 55 million tonne a year iron ore operation, with two berths at Port Hedland. The billionaire is yet to reveal how she plans to finance Roy Hill or what the final cost of the development will be, with earlier estimates put at USD 6.6 billion.

POSCO and fellow South Korean group STX are signed up as cornerstone investors.

Speaking outside the Boao Forum for Asia Perth conference, Ms Rinehart said that the event had enabled further relationship building with potential customers and partners. She added that "We have actually got all our letters of intent in place for China for Roy Hill so it was just working on the ongoing relationship."

Ms Rinehart hosted the board of the Boao Forum committee, including chairman and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Zhou Wenzhong, China's ex ambassador to both Australia and the US, and a raft of other political leaders for lunch at her Dalkeith riverfront mansion on Sunday. She arranged for prominent climate change skeptic Professor Dr Ian Plimer to address the luncheon crowd.

An avowed critic of the Gillard Government's carbon tax, Ms Rinehart reiterated that the latest impost when added to the proposed minerals resource rent tax would increase the cost burden for Australian miners. She said that "Obviously shoving in a carbon tax and the MRRT doesn't help our cost competitiveness. If we don't keep being cost competitive, Australia's trading partners will go elsewhere."

(sourced from TheWest)

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