GINDALBIE Metals' Karara iron ore project cleared its last major hurdle after the Foreign Investment Review Board approved a $162 million share placement to its joint venture partner Ansteel.
The share placement will increase the State-owned Chinese steelmaker's stake in the mine from 12 per cent to 36 per cent.
Mr Swan said his approval was on the condition that Ansteel supported wider development of infrastructure in the Mid West and maintaining agreed upon levels of Australian workers in another of its joint ventures in China.
"Ansteel has undertaken to support the development of the Oakajee Port and Rail Project approved by the Western Australian Government, use the Oakajee Port when that Port is available to ship Karara production to customers and not alter the proposed 50-50 ownership of the pellet plant that joint venture participants intend to build in China without first seeking the prior approval of the Australian Government," he said.
"These undertakings support Australian mining jobs and protect Australia's investment participation in the Chineses resources market."
Gindalbie's chairman George Jones said the approval was fundamental for the development of the Karara Project."The Karara project is a text book example of how Chinese investment can help maximise the value of Australia's resources and, in this instance help to generate a new value-added commodity product for Western Australia in the form of high-grade magnetite concentrate," he said.
"Ansteel's help in developing Karara is creating jobs for Australians, generating much needed revenue for Governments, and supporting new common-user infrastructure like Oakajee Port. "The Chinese are a valuable source of funding and can play a vital role in the growth of Australia's resources industry."
The share placement will cover the cost of Gindalbie's final equity contribution to Karara. Iron ore shipped from Karara is expected to make up the first berth from the proposed Oakajee port in 2014. Gindalbie said recently it hoped to start producing iron ore from Karara as early as 2010.
If all approvals are met construction should start on the Karara project by the end of the year. The Environmental Protection Agency gave conditional approval for the project earlier this month. Karara is set to be the first large scale iron ore project in the Mid West.
Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance chief executive Rob Jefferies said the company never expected the FIRB approval to be a problem and all major hurdles were now cleared for the project, however there were still a few issues that needed to be resolved.
"All of this adds substaintially to the confidence we have in this project," he said. "The issue now is timing - the balance of the environmental approvals process and supply of power are the other really important elements.
"The 330 kilowatt line needs to be built at least to Eneabba in the short term so our magnetite projects can tap into it. In the long term it needs to run to Geraldton."