Billionaires Andrew Forrest and Chris Ellison walk away from tiff over Pilbara iron ore patch

Mineral Resources and Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue have agreed to drop a long-running legal blue over iron ore tenements the Chris Ellison-led miner has since mined and moved on to a new development. Fortescue’s subsidiary FMG Pilbara fired the legal action back in 2020 at a MinRes offshoot, the Department of Energy, Mines Industry Regulation and Safety registrar, and the Minister for Mines contesting the validity of mining leases for the Wonmunna project 80km north-west of Newman. MinRes — little more than an iron ore minnow at the time — had bought the project from Aboriginal Mining Corporation that year and moved swiftly on producing its first tonnes from the asset. Mr Ellison at the time referred to the looming legal challenge from the Fortescue founder as a “nothing thing”. “We’re a little mining outfit and we’re just simply being bullied into trying to reduce the tonnes that we’re putting out,” he said during a results call in February 2021. “We’re just simply ignoring that.” Disclosures in subsequent annual reports over the following years maintained the status of the legal proceedings, that alleged the minister did not have jurisdiction to grant the mining leases, were “still preliminary”. MinRes denied the claims and said it was defending them. By August last year, MinRes’ annual report had deemed that Wonmunna’s “economic viability will become limited in the short to medium term” and indicated it would replace tonnes from the asset with a new greenfields development. Those plans were resubmitted to the Environmental Protection Authority at the end of January. Months later and the spat between two of WA’s best-known mining entrepreneurs has seemingly fizzled out, with consent orders granted by WA Supreme Court registrar Griffin that the proceedings be dismissed and there be no order regarding costs in October. Fortescue and MinRes confirmed the Wonmunna matter had been dismissed, but did not disclose any further information regarding the circumstances. With Wonmunna seemingly out of the picture, documents lodged with the EPA confirm MinRes will be having another crack at building the Lamb Creek mine, about 130km nort-west of Newman, to replace tonnes the once-disputed mine had been producing. Original plans for the small time operation were submitted with the EPA back in 2022, but were later withdrawn due to “project timing”, according to a person familiar with the matter. The new application outlines a smaller development envelope, shrinking to 860.9 hectares from 881 hectares. Construction at Lamb Creek is due to start in the coming months, according to the provided development timeline, and hit first iron ore production early 2026. Annual output capacity will be 10 million tonnes over the next three to five years, as part of MinRes’ Pilbara Hub that exports through Utah Point. MinRes is targeting full shipments of between 21mtpa and 24mtpa in 2025 as its newest mine Onslow ramps up to full capacity of 35mtpa over the next six months. Both mining juggernauts have plenty of other pots on the boil. MinRes’ share price is down nearly 38 per cent over the past 12 months, as governance scandals and lower prices for iron ore and lithium — the two commodities it produces — languish. And Fortescue, whose main business is also in the steelmaking commodity, is dealing with slower-than-targeted progress in developing commercial scale green hydrogen.