South Korea’s Posco and US equity house American Metals and Coal International (AMCI) have agreed to back a plan by China’s Baosteel Resources and Australia’s Aurizon Holdings to build a port and railway facility, Aurizon revealed on Thursday. The new resource would service Baosteel and Aurizon’s jointly-owned West Pilbara Iron Ore project.

The news marks continued investment in iron ore mining by steelmakers despite the collapse in prices this year, Kallanish observes.

The plan would see potential throughput of the logistics system hit 40 million tonnes/year, up from 30mt/y in the original plan. Ore will be transported by rail 280 km to a port at Anketell. Aurizon says that 40m t/y is “…the base case to make this viable…”

Posco and AMCI hold 50% of the project, while Baosteel and Aurizon took control of the remaining 50% recently in a $1.4 billion forced takeover of project operator Aquila Resources. The $6.8bn iron ore project has been stuck in the development phase for a decade.

The project is still not likely to develop rapidly. The latest agreement gives Aurizon the exclusive right to develop the port and railway up to January 2016, on the condition that it can provide an acceptable tariff by October 2015. Baosteel and Aurizon have said they plan to begin exports from 2017 or 2018.