Article by Jack McGinn, courtesy of the Business News.
Gina Rinehart has warned against policies that attack Australia’s “mining golden geese”, after Hancock Prospecting was awarded long awaited approvals for its McPhee iron ore project.
Hancock confirmed receipt of the final federal approvals for McPhee this afternoon, having first referred the project in 2021.
The project is forecast to deliver around 10 million tonnes of ore per annum which will be blended through the nearby Roy Hill mine.
It is expected to enter production in the 2026 financial year.
Its approval is a welcome outcome for Hancock, and its projects chief executive Sanjiv Manchanda highlighted the time taken to achieve government signoff.
“The McPhee project has a very small footprint, only 1.5 percent of Australia’s current iron ore exports, and will use existing processing, rail and port infrastructure, yet was referred for a long approval process in early 2021 and has experienced a multitude of challenges from changes to heritage legislation, and changes to federal environment guidelines,” he said.
Mr Manchanda said it was a relief to have the project signed off after long and sustained dialogue with government.
Mrs Rinehart, who is Hancock executive chairman, said the current system would creating uncertainty for project developers and the communities around them.
“This is serious,” she said.
“If we keep bringing in policies and adding government tape that keep attacking the mining golden geese, making projects more expensive and uncertain, there are other countries that have iron ore and other minerals.
“… [I]nvestment will continue to move offshore, as we continue to see record business closures, upsetting many families, and falling standards of living effecting Australians across our country, six consecutive quarters so far.”
The project approval comes amid ongoing debate over reform to the nation’s environmental laws, including a push to introduce a national environmental protection authority.
On a state level, the WA government is overhauling its own EPA in a move to cut processing time and accelerate project approvals.
In May, Mr Manchanda lashed out at government intervention in the resources sector and called to scrap the federal government’s environmental law reform push.
Mr Manchanda told the AFR Mining Summit in Perth that the company should have been celebrating first ore at McPhee late in 2023, but the project remained in approvals limbo at the time.
