Article: Massive top end railway project to proceed

[ozbob]

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Massive top end railway project to proceed

Massive top end railway project to proceed

An ambitious 3,300 km railway line linking north Queensland and northern Western Australia with six massive steel smelters at each end is ready to proceed into the next phase.

The USD 12.45 billion ?Project Iron Boomerang? would build a new rail line across Australia (east to west) to connect iron ore mines in the Pilbara (WA) with the Bowen Basin (Qld) coal mines via Ti Tree.

The project includes the building of industrial smelter park precincts at each end of the railway line, to manufacture first-stage iron/steel (slabs etc.) for export to second-stage rolling mills located within geographical mass market consuming countries. The railway would ?backload? the iron ore from WA to Qld and the coal from Qld to WA to both smelter parks.

The railway would shuttle a combined total of 53 million tonnes of iron ore (west to east) and coking coal (e-w) between the various points of the system. There is also a possibility to run a rail spur to Galilee, where there is reportedly mining potential worth $10 billion.

Project Iron Boomerang is promoted by East West Line Parks Pty Limited, whose principal Shane Condan says the venture has a multitude of economic and environmental benefits.

?We will be needing as much fuel for the building phase of the project as is the current tonnage carried on the Adelaide-Darwin rail line, which is still in receivership ? overnight, it would become economical,? Mr Condan said. ?And by not sending iron ore and coal overseas by ship, we can cut 8.7 million tonnes of CO2 from the global steel supply chain.?

Having completed the pre-feasibility stage, Mr Condan says 19 out of 26 global steel manufacturers have signed the required confidentiality agreement to be involved in the project. It will now progress to the feasibility study, which is expected to take two years and cost $145 million.

[ButFli]

"Ready to proceed" my arse. Ready to suck up naive-investors' funds more like!