Article by Adrian Rauso, courtesy of The West Australian.
The Albanese Government has finally signed off on a plan for Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting to build an iron ore mine in the Pilbara that will create 800 jobs.
The $600 million McPhee project, situated between Marble Bar and Nullagine, was first referred for approval in early 2021 and was originally meant to produce first ore in 2023. That milestone has now been pushed back until at least July next year.
Hancock chief executive Sanjiv Manchanda pinned the timeline blowout on years of regulatory delays.
“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,” he said.
“Yet (it) 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.
“Our staff, Mrs Rinehart and I are very pleased that after long and sustained dialogues at all levels we have achieved this important milestone.”
The mine is set to create 500 new jobs during construction and up to 300 new full-time positions once operational.
Ore from McPhee will be transported by road trains to Hancock’s flagship Roy Hill operation “to improve product mix and sustain Roy Hill’s production volumes”, the company says.
Mrs Rinehart thanked her team for “years of efforts and persistence” to make McPhee a reality and once again warned about excessive government red tape strangling the mining industry.
“According to the Minerals Council of Australia, of the mining projects we see in the pipeline now, about 80 percent will be discarded. This is serious,” she said.
“There are other countries that have iron ore and other minerals, and investment 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.”
