A consortium led by Adelaide-based Flinders Ports was today selected by the South Australian Government to undertake a feasibility study for a significant infrastructure development – the Port Bonython Bulk Commodities Export Facility, near Whyalla.

The successful group, the Spencer Gulf Port Link Consortium, comprises Flinders Port Holdings, Leighton Contractors, Macquarie Capital, BIS Industrial Logistics and the Australian Rail Track Corporation. The export facility is proposed to be built at Port Bonython, near Whyalla, in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf region, at a cost of around A$400 million.

Many companies with projects in South Australia have welcomed this decision. Two, in particular, are IronClad mining and Western Plains Resources, who both have projects that, they hope, will benefit from this development. Iron Clad see this as a “vital step towards the establishment of a major iron ore export industry on the Eyre Peninsula”, and believes that its Wilcherry Hill and adjacent Hercules iron ore deposits, just 110 km to the west of Port Bonython, will be greatly facilitated by the new port. The project is positioned for a start-up late in 2010, and with the port expecting to be operational a year later the company hopes to be able to use this facility at some point.

Western Plains Resources on the other hand is actively working on an innovative strategy to allow it to start exports from another port before the Port Bonython facility is operational. Its Peculiar Knob mine, located 90 km southeast of Coober Pedy, is set to commence production during 2009 and the company hopes it will be able to supply a DSO product at a rate of up to 2 Mt/y to the Asian market. The company commented: “Flinders Ports operates all seven public ports in South Australia. Western Plains is surprised the Government did not see the benefit in introducing competition into the South Australian ports sector.” It continued, “but Flinders Ports is an experienced, capable and competent port operator”, who the company “looks forward to working with so that this new facility is constructed quickly, and to a scope that makes is cost competitive with other bulk commodity export ports.”