Wiggins Island – something to be celebrated

As a person who spends a large amount of their time dealing with mining infrastructure, the rate of structural reform and progress in the area can be frustrating.  The Wiggins Island port project is however something to be celebrated.

It should be celebrated for the hard work and persistence of all of those involved - the miners, WICET, the State and GPC. Most of all it should be celebrated by all of the mining industry in Queensland (and further afield).

Wiggins Island will provide a great platform for future infrastructure investment. It will be a platform irrespective of your chosen model. Wiggins established a successful consortium. It has proved to the industry and the lending fraternity that a large infrastructure project can be financed by a large divergent group – a group of large and small miners. The model holds hope for the start-up miner, as well as the established miner in expansion mode.

The financial close of Wiggins Island has come at the right time. The demand for thermal and metallurgical coal remains strong. The pipeline of new and expansion projects (particularly having regard to the Galillee) is huge. That pipeline of development has an equally large pipeline of rail and port developments.

The State of Queensland has recently announced proponents for 6 new terminals at Abbot Point. Each one of those terminals will be wholly funded by the using miners. At least one of the proponents is a consortium of mining companies (again large and small).

Such a scale of development comes with many challenges. There is of course the challenge of finding a skilled workforce to develop the infrastructure. Input costs are forever rising.

The largest challenge however is one of coordination. For infrastructure to be brought on line efficiently, each part of the coal chain needs to be developed in sync. There is no point in developing a mine and port, without a rail solution.

Without coordination the industry faces uncertainty and inevitable delay. To date the Queensland mining industry has suffered as a result of a lack of coordination. For coordination to be effective the only party that can impose it is the Government. We keep our fingers crossed.

This article was written by Freehills Partner Jay Leary.