Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie launched legal action against Homestake Gold of Australia over distribution of gold pro-duced at the Super Pit mine in Kalgoorlie, this week 10 years ago. Each company owned 50 per cent of the Super Pit operation, Australia’s largest gold mine. Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie believed it was entitled to 8,924 ounces of gold from the Super Pit that it was yet to receive and that negotiations with Homestake aimed at res-olving its claim had failed. Under the joint venture arrangement between the two companies, Gold Mines was entitled to a share of more than 50 per cent of the production from a certain part of the Super Pit mine that was based on a complex formula applied by the mine manager, known as a disproportionate share arrangement. Shipping tender. A formal tender process was launched by the state government for an operator to provide a private shipping service to the state’s north-west. The state government offered funding of $5 million a year to subsidise the service, but it was unclear whether the amount would be sufficient to attract operators, according to reports. Business in the north-west, represented by the Kimberley Development Commission, firmly supp-orted the private sector shipping option, favouring a two-vessel service between Fremantle, Broome and Wyn-dham. North bullish on prices. Mining company North Limited said it was confident iron ore price negotiations with Japanese steel mills would result in a price increase. North had a 65 per cent share of the Robe River iron ore mine in WA. North manager, operations, Malcolm Broomhead said the eco-nomic outlook for the US, Eur-ope and Asia was positive, although the company expected a benign downturn in the world economy in the medium term. Robe River generated sales of $271.6 million in 1994-95.