AFP reported that remote controlled stackers and reclaimers moving iron ore to rail cars at Port Dampier operations in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
Sundance Resources is seeking Chinese investors to help fund a USD 4 billion iron ore project in the Cameroon, West Africa, the latest company seeking to challenge the dominance of Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in the overseas market for steel making's basic material.
Mr Giulio Casello MD of Sundance said that Sundance is in talks with Chinese steel mills, the natural candidates to invest in the project given Beijing's push to consolidate domestic steelmaking and reduce its reliance on the world's three biggest producers of iron ore.
He added that "A lot of Chinese steel mills simply want to secure long-term supplies of iron ore from sources other than the big boys and are willing to invest in places like Africa to do that."
China has plenty of its own iron ore. But much of it is low grade, meaning it is cheaper to import higher iron content ore from countries like Australia, Brazil and Africa.
Vale, Rio and BHP between them control about 70% of the world's seaborne traded iron ore and Chinese companies are already buying into foreign iron ore producers.
Chinalco is the biggest shareholder in Rio Tinto and its partner in the yet to be developed Simandou iron ore project in Guinea and Hunan Valin holds 16% of Fortescue Metals Group , Australia's third biggest producer.
The first stage of Sundance's project, consisting of two separate deposits in Cameroon and neighboring Congo, a 480 kilometer (270 mile) railway and a port, will yield 35 million tonnes of iron ore a year for 10 years. That's still less than the production plans outlined by some of the other challengers to the sector's majors.
South Africa's Anglo American is aiming to double its iron ore production to 80 million tonnes a year in about three years and Fortescue wants to be mining 155 million tonnes by mid decade.
A final study by Sundance detailing the costs and logistics of the project will be completed by the end of this month. Private Chinese exploration company Hanlong Mining bought an additional 15.95% in Sundance this week, making it the largest shareholder with 19%.
Mr Casello took over as MD after a plane carrying the entire board of Sundance crashed in thick jungle in June 2010 on a flight from Yaounde, Cameroon's capital to Yangadou in Congo Brazzaville. There were no survivors.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
