Miners give thumbs up to Oakajee
Oakajee Port & Rail received a strong level of interest from Mid-West miners wanting to participate in the first round of exports from the proposed port.
Expressions of interest from the miners, which forms part of OPR's feasibility studies, exceeded the port's stage 1 capacity of 35m tonnes a year.
OPR chief executive John Langoulant said he was pleased with the level of demand.
"This takes the project to a new level of confidence in terms of economic viability," Mr Langoulant said.
"It also demonstrates that there is potential to expand the project beyond its initial stage 1 capacity."
Several miners have already expressed an interest in the port's stage 2 export capacity, he said.
OPR is currently conducting detailed analysis of the tonnage nominations to determine the composition of the allocation of stage 1 export tonnages.
The port project is due to start in 2013.
