Heavy trucking company drags itself a bit further from a troubling situation
Diversified haulage company McAleese is having something approaching a run of positive developments just weeks after its shares reached a nadir.
Having fallen to 8 cents each on May 4 following a trading halt, the share price has consolidated around the 14 cents mark.
News that the company’s McAleese Resources business has gained an iron ore haulage deal with PMI, a subsidiary of Mineral Resources, should see it rise higher.
The bulk haulage arm will now redeploy 40 quad road train combinations and staff to shift 1 million tonnes of iron ore from PMI’s Iron Valley project to Utah Point over four months.
“As the largest road haulage operator in the Pilbara we are excited to commence this new partnership with PMI,” McAleese Resources divisional general manager Andrew Simpson says.
“The agreement reflects our flexibility and efficiency in operational planning and is testament to the strength of the McAleese Resources team.
“I am also pleased that as a result of this new partnership we are able to offer greater certainty to our workforce as to the future opportunities with our business.”
McAleese expects that once the majority of the Iron Valley ore has been hauled, McAleese Resources will transfer some of the equipment and employees to Atlas Iron’s Mt Webber project, which is scheduled to have restarted by the September quarter, subject to ongoing discussions between Atlas and its contractors.
McAleese Resources currently provides haulage services to Atlas Iron’s Abydos project and expects to recommence haulage from the Wodgina mine by the end of May 2015.
The parent company this month entered into an agreement with Atlas to reduce rates in exchange for a share of ore sales income.