Oakajee gets go-ahead as Mid West port site

Premier Alan Carpenter has confirmed Oakajee as the preferred site for a new privately funded deep-water port, 20 km north of Geraldton.
The move will be widely welcomed, particularly by the resources sector, with the iron ore sector alone set produce up to 60 million tonnes a year of iron ore for export by 2012.
The resources sector has been arguing for a deep water port at Oakajee for many years able to handle the big iron ore and pellet tonnages expected to begin flowing from around 2010.
That is when Murchison Metals Ltd's Jack Hills project and Midwest Corp Ltd's Weld Range project, about 380km and 350km respectively north-east of Geraldton, are due to come on stream. Each are billion dollars plus projects and there are many others.
Preliminary Murchison cost estimates for just the rail and Oakajee port facilities for Jack Hills are between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion. However, these numbers are expected to rise considerably with the addition of ancillary works and power requirements to be identified in a bankable feasibility study due by the end of this year.
Midwest is doing a similar evaluation with Chinese steel partners Sinosteel and several infrastructure investors/developers and funders.
Mr Carpenter conceded that the scale of iron ore mining proposals emerging in the Mid-West region could not be handled by Geraldton Port's ultimate 20Mtpa capacity.
"The two ports will complement each other and both will come under the jurisdiction of the Geraldton Port Authority," Mr Carpenter said.
"Our next step will be to consider a report from the government steering committee, which will look at the design process, the timing of construction and the operational management of the Oakajee port.
"Most importantly, the report will consider the roles of Government and the private sector in the funding, development, regulatory access and management of the key port and rail infrastructure.

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Oakajee confirmed as preferred port site.

Premier Alan Carpenter has today confirmed Oakajee as the preferred site for a new privately funded deep-water port.

The Premier said the development of Oakajee, which is about 20km north of Geraldton, would support the expansion of iron ore mining in the Mid West region.

The Premier said work completed by the Mid West Development Commission showed that a number of major resource development projects in the State's Midwest could generate up to 60 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of iron ore for export by 2012.

"With the scale of iron ore mining proposals that are emerging in the Midwest region, the expansion of Geraldton Port's export capacity beyond approximately 20Mpta would be unacceptable from both social and environmental perspectives," Mr Carpenter said.

"The two ports will complement each other and both will come under the jurisdiction of the Geraldton Port Authority.

"Our next step will be to consider a report from the Government steering committee that will look at the design process, the timing of construction, and the operational management of the deep-water port at Oakajee.

"Most importantly, the report will consider the roles of Government and the private sector in the funding, development, regulatory access and management of the key port and rail infrastructure.

"We also want the port and rail infrastructure to be linked to the proposed Oakajee industrial estate, further boosting Geraldton's regional economy."

The Premier said the report would form the basis of a second submission to Cabinet.

The policy paper and Cabinet submission would be overseen by a special committee of relevant Ministers to ensure the project was managed and delivered in a timely manner.

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