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Gina Rinehart's Pilbara Mine One Step Closer

GINA Rinehart's decades-long dream of building her own Pilbara iron ore mine may be a step closer to fruition after Japan's Marubeni Corp boosted its stake in the $9.5 billion Roy Hill project to 15 per cent and crucial talks with potential lenders reportedly overcame a key hurdle.

Marubeni, one of Japan's biggest trading houses, bought out the 2.5 per cent stake in Roy Hill held by the financially troubled South Korean conglomerate STX Corp, in a move seen as strengthening the equity interests behind the project.

[janfordrealestate-blog-blog]

Iron ore shipments up in May 2013

May iron ore exports from Port Hedland to China have defied recent poor performances by the Australian stock market to be up 21 per cent on exports in April.

Ore exports to China rose to 23.3m tonnes in May, up from 19.3m tonnes in April, while total ore exports from Port Hedland reached 27.9m tonnes this month, up from 26m tonnes last month, according to the Port Hedland Port Authority.

The ore shipments to China were also up 34 per cent on shipments in May last year.

As reported by Reuters, the shipments are a welcome indicator for economists of positive industrial activity in China and an improvement in Australia’s May trade balance, given that iron ore is the country’s single biggest export earner.

Port Hedland handles about one fifth of seaborne trade in iron ore with BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Iron planning to ship 200m tonnes through the port this year.