Baosteel-Aquila snaffles Vorster
China's Baosteel has signalled that sagging iron ore prices will not hold back development of its West Pilbara iron project, recruiting former Iron Ore Holdings boss Alwyn Vorster to head up its local iron ore business.
Mr Vorster confirmed yesterday he had accepted the role as general manager iron ore at Aquila Resources, delisted from the stock exchange earlier this year after Baosteel and Aurizon closed a $1.4 billion takeover.
He faces the tricky task of helping to consolidate Aquila's patchwork network of tenements and occasionally fractious joint venture agreements into an economic mining project.
Based on his previous success in monetising IOH's far-flung iron ore projects, Mr Vorster is also likely to play a signifi- cant role in the sale of any of Aquila's coal, iron ore and manganese projects in Australia and South Africa that its new owners believe are surplus to requirements.
Mr Vorster joins an Aquila team still mostly intact after the takeover.
While Baosteel moved to install veteran executive Miles Zhou as Aquila's chief executive shortly after it took control in July, most of Aquila's other senior executives, including finance and corporate general manager Martin Alciaturi, remain with the company.
Mr Vorster would not comment on the details of his new role but is expected to stand down as a non-executive director of BC Iron today.
The two companies are next door neighbours in the West Pilbara, and BC Iron had previously indicated it would consider jointly developing its Buckland project with Aquila, so potential conflicts abound.
The poor outlook for iron ore prices has industry watchers discounting the likely development of multibillion-dollar iron ore projects, however Baosteel is pushing on undeterred.
Late last week, Red Hill Iron said it had agreed to an operating budget for its joint venture with Aquila, and it is believed Aquila's other partners, POSCO and AMCI, have also agreed on operating budgets at the project.
