The West Australian reported that iron ore holdings is looking for a partner to develop what the Kerry Stokes backed iron ore junior believes could be a large scale industrial salt operation in the Pilbara.
IOH has asked Liam Twigger's PCF Capital to help with the search for a partner willing to invest USD 5 million to USD 10 million to carry out a feasibility study into a 3 million tonne a year solar salt operation at the Mardie tenements.
IOH picked up the tenements, about 100 kilometer south to west of Dampier, for USD 225,000 off Azimuth Resources late last year with an eye towards using some of Mardie's 37 kilometer of coastline as a possible port location for its Pilbara iron ore ambitions.
However, IOH has since settled on a location at Cape Preston East, next door to CITIC Pacific's Sino Iron development, as the best option.
Mr Alwyn Vorster MD of IOH said that Mardie's salt potential was a bonus.
Azimuth had already done a pre feasibility study on the salt potential while the tenements were also prospective for iron ore.
Mr Vorster said that IOH did not want to use its USD 95 million cash pile on projects other than the core iron ore pursuits. He said that he was buoyed by Ridley's sale last month of the Cheetham Salt business in eastern Australia to a Hong Kong group for USD 150 million.
The Pilbara coast already hosts some of the world's biggest solar salt operations, led by Rio Tinto's Dampier Salt unit, Rio's operations at Port Hedland and Mitsui's Onslow Salt.
