Mineral Resources appears to have sold all of its Yilgarn Hub assets for a song, while retaining rights to gold and lithium deposits on the tenements.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, MinRes said Yilgarn Iron Investments (TII) had acquired all of its Yilgarn Iron Pty Ltd shares, as well as other tenements and land interests across the Yilgarn Hub, associated approvals, licences, entitlements and fixed assets.
This includes Carina, Koolyanobbing, Parker Range and Windarling mines which are now on care and maintenance.
Formerly a major exporter through Esperance port, MinRes ceased shipping Yilgarn Hub ore late last year and redeployed about 800 workers to mines in other regions.
“While the commercial terms of the sale are confidential and immaterial, MinRes’s priority was to select the party most likely to sustain these nearly 80-year-old operations for the benefit of the region and community,” the statement says.
While it is not listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Weekender understands YII is a new company based in Perth.
The MinRes decision to close the four mines caused a significant drop in activity at Esperance Port as the company’s activities took up all of Berth 1.
The company’s departure from the port has made room for other players to use the ore export facility, but so far only one company, Gold Valley, has taken the opportunity.
It exports iron ore from its Wiluna West mine through Esperance, but only takes up a fraction of the berth’s capacity.
