TPI turns to Supreme Court in rail scuffle
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore miner Fortescue’s infrastructure arm, The Pilbara Infrastructure (TPI), has turned to the Western Australian Supreme Court in a bid to retain sole use of rail infrastructure in the iron-ore-rich province.
TPI reported on Monday that it had lodged an application with the Supreme Court for a judicial review of the Economic Regulation Authority’s (ERA’s) determination of TPI’s floor and ceiling costs, and its decision to approve negotiations between TPI and iron-ore junior Brockman Iron.
In September, ERA scrapped TPI’s floor to ceiling costs on a section of its Pilbara railways, replacing it with its own pricing, and gave Brockman permission to negotiate for access to the Pilbara rail to haul 20-million tonnes a year of hematite ore from its Marillana project to Port Hedland.
TPI has opposed ERA’s decision, and said on Monday that it believed the regulator had made errors of law in its decision, and that it had failed to accord TPI procedural fairness in making its determination.
“We believe the ERA has made errors in its determination of the floor and ceiling costs. TPI is entirely within its rights to challenge the outcome, and has a duty to shareholders to pursue a fair and reasonable return on its world class infrastructure," Fortescue CEO Nev Power said.
TPI has also launched proceedings for a Supreme Court declaration that Brockman’s proposal for access to its railway was invalid and did not enliven the operation of the Railway Code.
TPI accused Brockman of seeking an option to access the railway at some future time, adding that the junior firm was not capable of entering into a binding agreement to use and pay for TPI’s railway at this time.
“TPI cannot be expected to subsidise third party projects that are uneconomic. The object of the code is not to provide an option on infrastructure,” Power added.
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