<p>Toll Holdings has teamed up with iron ore company Murchison Metals to look at the possibility of constructing a $1bn rail and deep water port north of Geraldton by 2010.</p> <p>Murchison said it had exchanged preliminary documentation with Toll Holdings, Korea’s Posco Engineering and Construction and a major Japanese industrial group that wished to remain nameless for now.</p> <p>The parties would all contribute to a feasibility study on the project, with a development proposal to be submitted to the West Australian Government as soon as possible.</p> <p>Midwest Corporation and Murchison expect to start trucking ore from small starter mines northeast of Geraldton over the next three months.</p> <p>But the miners said the expansion of bulk tonnage mines at Weld Range, Jack Hills and Blue Hills depends on the building of a railway and deepwater port.</p> <p>Muchison has forecast that the Jack Hills and Weld Range mines could produce more than 25m tonnes a year by the end of the decade.</p> <p>Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance chairman Clive Brown said it welcomed the news.</p> <p>"The feasibility studies will add to the body of knowledge being accumulated by members of the Alliance on the northeastern corridor infrastructure requirements," he said.</p> <br />
