THE Hope Downs project is considering a railway link to Port Hedland as part of a much-expanded $1 billion bid to become the third force in the Pilbara’s iron ore industry.
LACONIC mining boss Ian Burston is looking over his shoulder, not for knives but for friends.“I suppose all my friends will want their retirement presents back,” Mr Burston said.
Australian mining comp-anies are responding to international pressures for greater disclosure, providing a range of information that could not have been foreseen even a decade ago.
WA engineering companies see the early signs of a recovery in resource investment that could end the deepest and most prolonged slump in the past quarter of a century.
AFTER a heady rush into Asian mineral prospects in the mid-1990s, WA explorers have been more cautious in the past couple of years, following political and economic upheaval, particularly in Indonesia.
A DECISION will be made next year which could inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the WA economy, providing some relief for the hard pressed construction and fabricating industries.
AT LEAST $1 billion will be spent in the next year or two to expand production of a commodity that costs less per tonne than good gardening soil, or two cups of coffee in a five-star hotel.
AGGRESSIVE London-based mining house Billiton is carrying out preliminary studies to build a $4 billion aluminium smelter and power station in WA to harness the State’s low-cost alumina resources.
A PLAY about Paris, written in Perth, and performed in Sweden?This improbable combination was achieved by WA playwright Bill Warnock, whose play, Paris Burning, had its European premiere recently near Stockholm.
THE weak Australian dollar offers an opportunity to greatly reduce Australia’s massive foreign debt and, incidentally, increase exports, particularly from WA.
HOUSE prices in outer Perth suburbs collapsed, it was hard to sell old gas guzzlers and there were predictions that the world would run out of oil about now.
