Page 8 - pd257-Feb18-web_Neat

NEWS

BCI lands Buckland partner

Mardi is considered one of the last remaining large-scale, undeveloped salt projects in Australia

Having spent the better part of last year project into Iron Ore Holdings in late for a company of BCI’s size and balance
rounding off its diversification strat- 2012, almost two years before that com- sheet to develop the project on a stan-

egy, BCI Minerals Ltd was not going to pany was taken over by BC Iron. He suc- dalone basis,” Vorster told Paydirt.

waste any time pottering around once the ceeded Morgan Ball as managing direc- “We don’t want to be another junior

clock ticked over into 2018. tor of the latter in mid-2016. company over-promoting a large project

January was only 10 days old when “The potential capital cost of multiple that we don’t have the ability to fund our-

BCI (formerly BC Iron) announced it had mines in the Buckland project, plus the selves. So bringing in Sinosteel and the

“entered into a potentially lucrative part- Cape Preston East port, is just too large MoU is just the first step in our approach.
nership with the Australian arm of “They are very large, they are in

Sinosteel Group Corp Ltd, one of the top 20 state-owned enterprises

China’s largest and most influen- We don’t want to be in China and they’re very influen-
tial state-owned enterprises, over another junior company tial in the mining, trading and en-
its Buckland iron ore project in the gineering circles. Those are all ar-

West Pilbara. over-promoting a large project eas that will be very important for
The wide-ranging MoU – albeit that we don’t have the ability us going forward; to have partners
with that expertise but also, most
non-binding at this stage – pro-

vides a framework for Sinosteel to to fund ourselves. importantly, partners with strong
assist BCI with potential marketing financial capability to help us fund

and off-take opportunities, provi- the project.”

sion of engineering services and Drilling was ongoing at the Ku-

funding and JV structures at not mina deposit at the time of print

just the proposed mine site but ahead of a scheduled resource

also its associated infrastructure, update next month. A study as-

including a new port. sessing the viability of integrating

The 20 mtpa multi-commodity, Kumina with the existing Bunga-

multi-user port at Cape Preston roo South resources is also con-

East would export 15 mtpa of tinuing and will be completed by

iron ore from Buckland, as well mid-year.

as 3 mtpa of salt from BCI’s near- That study will also look to

by Mardi project. upgrade the base case develop-

BCI managing director Alwyn ment plans for Buckland from 8

Vorster always knew a cashed- mtpa to 15 mtpa over 15 years.

up development partner would “In the newer iron ore world

be required to get Buckland off with bigger discounts, which I

the ground. BCI has signed a non-binding MoU with Sinosteel to assist feel [shows] there’s an element

Vorster vended the Buckland with the development of the Buckland iron ore project of a structural change at least, we

PAGE 8 FEBRUARY 2018 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT