Pilbara Ports Authority ordered to produce reams of documents in channel fees barney with Mineral Resources

Pilbara Ports Authority will be required pull together and hand over a year’s worth of documents illuminating how it landed on slugging Mineral Resources millions of dollars in dues the miner refuses to pay. After an unsuccessful attempt in September to crack open a private agreement between the State and oil and gas giant Chevron, MinRes had better luck in its discovery mission in the WA Supreme Court last week. MinRes and the Pilbara Ports Authority have been locked in skirmishes over what documents should and shouldn’t be included in an upcoming trial over port dues that are believed to be in the order of about $17m. While MinRes didn’t secure all it was seeking — including more than a decade’s worth of correspondence relating to the Chevron agreement — Justice Jenni Hill agreed that some correspondence could be included. Per the judgement released on Friday, Pilbara Ports Authority will need to hand over all documents between January 2024 and December 2024 prepared by the organisation that could inform how the decision on the contested “Channel Charge” was reached. A further 12 documents related to the State Development Agreement with Chevron and financials specifically for the Port of Ashburton over the relevant financial years will also need to be handed over. The matter is scheduled for a three-day trial at the end of April. The Chris Ellison-led miner has been seeking access to further documents as part of its bid to fight off the levies allegedly owed on ore shipped from its flashy new Onslow operation. MinRes has been cranking up volumes from the operation, hitting nameplate capacity of 35 million tonnes in August. Chevron gets a clip of the channel fees because it developed the $3 billion Port of Ashburton during construction of its mammoth Wheatstone LNG hub. The port itself was handed over to the PPA afterwards. MinRes argues the alleged outstanding fees that PPA is required to pay to Chevron are not a port charge and it is not liable for the unpaid invoices.