Latest news with #Onslow
ABC News
29-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's Wyloo lodges mining applications for WA wetland
Mining billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has pegged a critical West Australian wetland for exploration, just two weeks after conservationists toasted the withdrawal of the world's largest salt company. Mr Forrest's private company Wyloo lodged two exploration licence applications near the Exmouth Gulf with the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety last week. The area, 40 kilometres south-west of Onslow and 1,400km north of Perth, has been eyed by industrial developers for almost half a century. The most recent proposal to construct a near 21,000-hectare saltworks was submitted by K+S Salt Australia and had been sitting before the state environment watchdog since 2016. Earlier this month, K+S said it would abandon the plans amid a change in "worldwide strategic direction" at its German parent company. It joined a long line of stalled developments, including the rejected Yannarie Project, which sought permission to transform a stretch of the Exmouth Gulf's eastern shoreline into a 4.2-million-tonne-per-annum solar salt farm. One of the tenements sought by Wyloo is located within a wetland that the WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) deemed of "national significance" when assessing Yannarie. Wyloo did not answer specific questions from the ABC about its plans for the tenements. When applying for exploration licences, companies must typically provide details of planned activities and spending for the first year. Analyst Tim Treadgold said he doubted Mr Forrest would venture into the "high-volume, low-value" world of salt production. "Salt is a highly specialised product. "It's also extremely exposed to climate variations, and it is a tricky product because you can get infections in your salt ponds, which can wipe out your product." Despite the challenges, the Pilbara region has emerged as a hotbed for prospective salt projects due to its dry and windy climate. The resource price is expected to climb before the end of the year. To the north, BCI Minerals is in the final stages of constructing the world's third-largest salt project near Karratha. The move has fuelled speculation Mr Forrest is hoping to firm up nearby pastoral leases. "Running through all that, you come to the question of why has he done it," Mr Treadgold said. "He could be stitching up control of his pastoral leases, because he had the devil's own job with someone a few years ago." The prized pair of mining tenements sit on Urala and Minderoo stations, part of the magnate's considerable rural land holdings. In 2017, Mr Forrest won a High Court bid to void exploration licences on his family pastoral property, Minderoo Station, and has since fought several legal battles to seize other permits surrounding the estate. Any intensive development would still require state and federal approval. WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said he was assessing recent studies of the Exmouth Gulf's significance. "It's clear the Exmouth Gulf's outstanding environmental and cultural values deserve protection," Mr Swinbourn said. "I have received the Exmouth Gulf Taskforce report and a preliminary briefing. "It's a substantial document, and I'm working through the detail. Any decisions arising from its recommendations will be made in due course." The continual industrial interest in the Exmouth Gulf has triggered outcry from researchers and activists eager to safeguard its unique attributes. University of Queensland marine ecologist Catherine Lovelock described the area as "one of the most undisturbed arid marine coastal ecosystems in the world". "The gulf itself is so important for organisms like whales and dugongs and all manner of creatures that we care about, as well as a productive fishery," Dr Lovelock said. "We can't just talk about mangroves or coral reefs … in these separate buckets. Denise Fitch, chair of Exmouth non-profit Cape Conservation Group, said the community had "worked hard to stop industrialisation of the wetlands for nearly 20 years". She hoped Mr Forrest acknowledged the site's importance, given the work of the Minderoo Foundation's Exmouth Research Laboratory. The Minderoo Foundation is the billionaire's philanthropic organisation, created alongside his now separated wife Nicola Forrest. The foundation specifically highlighted "multi-sector industrialisation" as a threat to the Exmouth Gulf in a 2020 submission to the EPA. It opened the Exmouth laboratory a year later and has funded a number of research projects across the region. The Minderoo Foundation declined to comment.
West Australian
26-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Not selling MinRes mining services unit says Mike Grey, with Onslow staying in the black a white-hot focus
The 'crown jewel' of Mineral Resources is not for sale, according to the man that oversees the division, because keeping it could help the company's flagship mine turn a decent profit even if iron ore crashes below $US60 per tonne. MinRes mining services chief executive Mike Grey shot down speculation a big chunk of the business unit he oversees could be flogged off to ease the company's swelling debt burden. The speculation emerged following a note published by Morgan Stanley this week. 'There's no truth to it all, no truth,' Mr Grey told The West Australian. Director of strategy, Tim Picton, chimed in to say the division – called CSI Mining Services – was the company's 'crown jewel'. 'You don't sell the crown jewel and mining services is the heart of our business and what makes us competitive against the majors,' Mr Picton said. 'We've got no plans to sell any of our assets, except the (mothballed) Yilgarn (iron ore complex).' CSI is the mining services provider at MinRes' majority-owned iron ore and lithium mines, and is also contracted to other operations run by the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto and Gina Rinehart. MinRes' $3.5 billion Onslow Iron project is arguably CSI's most important gig. Onslow is the only mine in the MinRes stable that can generate the meaningful sums of cash required to pay down the company's $5.8 billion debt pile. MinRes reckons its 57 per cent stake in Onslow can bring in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $727 million when the iron ore spot price is $US90/t. The steelmaking commodity is currently at about $US92/t with Australia's big four banks broadly pencilling in the price to fall to $US80/t by the end of the year. MinRes predicts Onslow's break-even price is $US57/t. Mr Picton said this estimate does not include the money raked in from mining services at Onslow, which would push the break-even price 'down a material amount'. But all the estimates are contingent on Onslow Iron running smoothly, and so far, there have been numerous bumps along the road. The biggest bump has been the performance of its haul road that links the Kens Bore mine to the Port of Ashburton. MinRes is spending $230 million to fix and upgrade the road following cyclonic weather earlier this year and a spate of truck rollovers. The company struggled to attract drivers to transport ore along the road and recently had to lower its driver experience requirements while boosting the pay on offer. Mr Grey said those hiring struggles are now behind MinRes. 'The labour side has really stabilised across the supply chain recently which is really good,' he said. 'We're at our peak now with (truck) drivers.' MinRes plans to roll out autonomous trucks with no drivers in the cabs during the latter half of next year.
AU Financial Review
26-06-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
MinRes spruiks its $3.5b Onslow project, the ‘Club Med of the Pilbara'
It's the remote Pilbara iron ore project that has the market divided. Now, two years after first breaking ground at Ken's Bore, Mineral Resources is out to spruik its flagship Onslow project, built at a cost of $3.5 billion. That sales pitch is why a two-dozen strong press pack – from television presenters to The Australian Financial Review – found themselves transported by the company's own airline service to the mine on Thursday.
West Australian
26-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Mineral Resources glitzy love-nest FIFO camp in WA's north at its make or break iron mine
Mineral Resources has cut the ribbon on a luxurious accommodation complex fitted with 'love-nest' dongas to house the workers of an iron ore mining operation that could make or break the Chris Ellison-led company. MinRes officially opened its $140 million Mungala Resort at the $3.5 billion Onslow Iron project in the Pilbara on Thursday. Mungala can house up to 500 employees at any one time and is the most extravagant mine site camp to have been built in Western Australia. The plethora of recreational amenities include a resort-style swimming pool, cricket net, football oval, mini golf course, virtual golf driving range, car racing simulators, and tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. The site includes a tavern and an up-scale dining hall slated to dish out six tonnes of crayfish and 18 tonnes of steak each year. Each of the camp's 500 rooms have 45 square metres of living space and contain their own queen-sized bed, kitchenette, en suite, lounge, large-screen TV and washer-dryer. The rooms, which have been colloquially dubbed 'love-nests' within the mining industry, are suitable for singles or couples — according to MinRes. While many mining companies frown upon romantic mingling at their camps, MinRes touts that the resort's population includes 23 couples. It believes rolling out the red carpet for romantic partners to live together on site will 'encourage workforce diversity'. 'We've already seen that diversity, or having an environment that is as beautiful as this, has already attracted a more diverse range of people, people that previously may not have considered FIFO as an option . . . and that includes women,' MinRes director of people Andrea Chapman said. 'But in addition to it being beautiful, it is also safe. You might have seen travelling around the security cameras, the open plan living, the fact that the plants are really low lying, all of that is done really intentional to provide better security outcomes for all of our people.' Ms Chapman said it was 'incredibly competitive' to get a spot at Mungala and MinRes has a long internal wait-list of men and women eager to work at Onslow owing to the luxury camp. Mr Ellison, who was not present at the media tour of the site's opening, in a statement said the company recognised traditional mining camps 'must evolve' in part to 'grow female participation'. Attracting and retaining staff at Onslow is a key priority for MinRes given the project's vital role in digging the company out of a financial hole. MinRes had debts of $5.8 billion and just $450m of cash by the end of the March quarter. The company has cut more than 1740 jobs so far this financial year. With its lithium mines struggling and its other iron ore mines producing relatively small amounts of cash, Onslow is seen by many analysts as MinRes' ticket to pay down its big pile of loans. Onslow produced first iron ore in May last year but faced a series of setbacks in its first year of operation, including severe rain damage to the 147-kilometre private haul road that links mine to port. MinRes is also currently being investigated by Australia's corporate cop, a probe which is set to focus on the alleged dealings of Mr Ellison and his associates.
NZ Herald
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Josh Emett and the eclair that became an icon
It's been an Onslow signature menu item since day one. Now, Josh Emett's famous crayfish eclair has clawed its way into the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Video / Alyse Wright
