PLS, MinRes load up port row with WA government

Major lithium producers claim Pilbara Ports has abandoned a $630m infrastructure promise, leaving the future of mineral exports hanging in the balance.

PLS’s lithium mine in Western Australia.

Two of Australia’s lithium producers are feuding with the country’s biggest port over what they claim is a broken promise to build infrastructure that would make it more efficient to export critical minerals.

The West Australian government-controlled Pilbara Ports Authority is headed for a showdown with PLS and Mineral Resources — and potentially the commonwealth — over the construction of new berths and support infrastructure at Port Hedland.

PLS and MinRes said they were led to believe conveyors and a shiploader would be part of the infrastructure when they agreed to become anchor tenants at the Lumsden Point project.

The port authority confirmed to The Australian it has put plans to build conveyors and a shiploader for lithium exports on ice. Building a new shiploader “with the current demand for exports would not be commercial”, it said.

The Lumsden Point project is being funded to date by $467.5m from the commonwealth, $96.6m from the WA government and $65m from industry players.

The decision on lithium infrastructure comes as the WA government tops up its budget coffers with $615.5m received from Pilbara Ports, including a $400m special dividend.

PLS and MinRes have yet to be officially notified that the infrastructure they anticipated will not be built, but have feared the worst.

The issue was raised with federal Resources Minister Madeleine King when she hosted a recent critical minerals industry roundtable in Perth.

Ms King confirmed on Thursday the matter had been brought to her office, and hinted she could intervene. She considered the infrastructure “vitally important”.

Dale Henderson, chief executive of PLS, at the company's Pilgangoora lithium project in Port Hedland. Picture: Bloomberg

PLS chief executive Dale Henderson told The Australian it would be a crying shame and another blow to the nation’s critical minerals industry if the common user infrastructure was delayed and then industry was forced to stump up the cost.

Mr Henderson said the best thing “Team Australia” could do to capture the critical minerals opportunity was to invest in enabling infrastructure to make the country more competitive and enable businesses like PLS to ­capitalise.

“This is exactly the role Australia should play, but they need to see it through (at Lumsden Point) and accelerate the delivery,” he said. “What’s more, they should not be charging the very first participants and trying to get the various first participants to carry the full cost of that capital.

“That just does not work. The role the government needs to play is a sort of ‘build it, and they will come’, as shown by other governments globally.”

MinRes, already at war with Pilbara Ports over levies attached to iron ore exports from Onslow, blasted the port authority’s stance.

“MinRes has already invested in dredging for Lumsden Point and has completed substantial design work for a facility predicated on the inclusion of the shiploader,” a spokesman said.

“Removing this essential component would undermine long-term value and growth oppor­tunities for WA’s lithium sector, and actually make lithium exports more expensive than current port arrangements.

“Now is the time for the state government to invest in shared-user infrastructure to secure the future of our critical minerals ­industry.”

PLS and MinRes signed up for the highly anticipated Lumsden Point facility in April last year. The new multi-user facilities include a general cargo berth, earmarked for the import of wind turbine blades and other renewables technology, and a minerals export berth.

They are being developed within the world’s biggest export port and major source of the ­nation’s wealth through iron ore shipments to China.

Pilbara Ports recently completed the causeway that will connect two new wharves to an extensive logistics hub. It said agreements had been signed that would result in reclaimed land within the logistics hub opened to the Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), Kimberley Marine Support Base, Qube and Toll.

The Australian revealed last week that the $55bn AREH project was under a cloud after global energy major BP ended its involvement.

A Pilbara Ports spokesman said the first of two new wharves at Lumsden Point was on track for completion in mid-2026, and the second wharf in late 2026.

On the lithium infrastructure, Pilbara Ports said conveyors and a shiploader were part of the “master plan”.

“The master plan for Lumsden Point envisages the installation of a shiploader, linked by conveyors to storage sheds. This facility would be used for the export of bulk commodities, including lithium. Funding for this project would be the subject of future agreements between Pilbara Ports and the private sector,” the spokesman said.

“There are already two common-user shiploaders available at the port for bulk export, with the Lumsden shiploader envisaged to be the third.

“The current demand for outload capacity at the port does not currently justify investment in a large-scale bulk export facility at Lumsden.”

Originally published as PLS, MinRes load up port row with WA government