Mineral Res starts work on Hancock mine

Mining services company Mineral Resources has reached an agreement with Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting for the start of operations at the Nicholas Downs manganese mine from March next year.

The timetable will see Mineral Resources mobilise processing plant and equipment to HPPL's Nicholas Downs site in January 2010. Site operations will commence production at a target rate of 40,000 tonnes per month of 40% ferruginous manganese with the first shipments of product expected to sail from Port Hedland in April 2010.

Peter Wade, Executive Chairman of Mineral Resources says "this is a major milestone in the development of Mineral Resources' relationship with HPPL and a direct result of the significant effort from both parties to move this project forward. The market is right for additional supply of manganese with the overall world market for steel making materials significantly improving."

In 2008, Mineral Resources announced a collaborative agreement with HPPL on the implementation of a manganese processing and export operation at what was then known as the Balfour Downs tenement in the Murchison region of Western Australia. HPPL has renamed the project in honour of the Nicholas family, Mrs Gina Rinehart's mother's family, who were also a pioneering family in the North of West Australia, her father James Nicholas, owning Cobb & Co, and bringing the first camels into the north to enable transportation in dry and rugged areas.