Seaborne iron ore prices rebounded on Monday on the back of higher deals but remained close to the $80/tonne mark. Prices will have to stay high if the Todds are going to pull off their Pilbara iron ore plans, but they remain optimistic.

The Kallanish index for 62% Fe Australian fines recovered $0.82/t to $80.16/dry metric tonne cfr Qingdao. 170,000t of PB fines sold in a tender at $80.01/t with a laycan in 9-18 February. On the Dalian Commodity Exchange, the May iron ore contract closed down CNY 16/t from the previous day at CNY 611/t ($89/t), while the same contract for coking coal closed down CNY 47.5/t at CNY 1,173/t.

New Zealand’s billionaire Todd family are still pressing ahead with a $5 billion investment in Pilbara iron ore. Todd Corp signed a framework agreement with the government of Western Australia on Monday for their proposed Balla Balla project.

If the plans, spread across several companies with Todd investment, finally come fully to fruition, a new export network for 50 million tonnes/year of iron ore exports could be created. The investments include a mine which could ship up to 10m t/y of ore. One of the biggest impacts that the project could have, however, is unlocking hematite deposits which have not had access to existing infrastructure, which is controlled by Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and FMG.

For the investment to be completed, however, analysts say iron ore prices will have to remain high for years to come, something which an extra 50m t/y of iron ore on the market would likely make even less probable.