The West Australian cited Mr Chris Ellison MD of Mineral Resources as saying that the company plans a spin out of its iron ore assets within the next 2 years.
According to the company, over the past 3 years MinRes has quietly built a substantial iron ore business, expecting to export more than 3.7 million tonnes from its Pilbara and Yilgarn operations this year. That figure will rise to 6 million tonne next year.
Mr Ellison at its annual meeting in Perth said that mining services would always remain MinRes' primary business and its iron ore mines would be on the market at some point.
MinRes exports iron ore from both Port Hedland and Kwinana and its primary asset is the Carina iron ore mine in the Yilgarn, picked up through the acquisition of Polaris Metals in early 2010.
However, port space at Kwinana is limited and Mr Ellison said the timing of the spin out of its iron ore business could depend on the proposed expansion of the Esperance port.
He said that "I believe that the key to the expansion of the Esperance port is going to be Polaris. Without Polaris there will be no expansion, is our personal view. We think we are the only ones aside from Cliffs Natural Resources with the ore to warrant an expansion."
He added that MinRes expects its production from the Pilbara to rise in January, when its Phil's Creek mine begins to ship ore.
Though, the outlook for other mining services companies has been gloomy, he added that MinRes expects a bumper year next year, because its build, own and operate model was more attractive to the bigger miners as they pulled back on capital expenditure.
He further added that the company would also expand its mining services offerings to engineering, procurement and construction management services.
