Mining outlook

At the very end of an extraordinary week, a late announcement from an unlikely source – Transport Minister Troy Buswell – gave one of the few clear signals about future growth in the mining sector.

IRON ore producers in the state's Yilgarn region are not immune from the hurdles facing producers in the Pilbara and Mid West – port capacity and access issues, transportation and infrastructure –

MID West iron ore projects have the potential to produce 67 million tonnes of iron ore per year, earning the state annualised royalties in the range of $42 million.

Western Australia's pipeline of significant non-iron ore projects is showing signs of a quick slowdown as construction of major projects is due to be completed by the end of next year.

AUSTRALIA'S two major ammonium nitrate producers are punting $1.3 billion that the mining boom has enough legs to justify their investment in new production capacity.

PERTH-BASED engineering and construction contractors have released a spate of record earnings reports, while bulging order books suggest there's plenty of life in the resources boom.

Nuclear energy has been under a cloud since the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan last year, uranium prices have remained well off their highs and public confidence in nuclear power is weak but u