PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland government has short-listed mining giant Anglo American and an alliance between freight operator Aurizon and Lend Lease, as two potential developers of the Abbot Point coal loading expansion.

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney on Wednesday noted that the Abbot Point port was a strategic state asset, and noted that any expansion of the asset needed to be managed carefully.

Seeney said that it was clear that the industry had not been supportive of a proposed multi-cargo facility put forward by the previous Labor government.

The A$9-billion plan, which was aimed at increasing the export capacity at the port to nearly 400-million tons a year was scrapped a year ago.

"Any future plans for the port at Abbot Point will need to take into consideration the short- and long-term needs of industry,” Seeney said this week.

He noted that in the coming weeks, the government would enter into negotiations with Anglo American and the Aurizon alliance around preferred proponent agreements, with the aim of assisting the companies in preparing terminal development proposals.

Seeney said the government anticipated there could be a need to further expand coal export capacity at Abbot Point as new coal mining projects emerged, particularly in the Galilee basin.

Further demand for terminal development could be considered beyond 2013, Seeney said, once the capacity of current proposals was further understood.

“The government wants to ensure ‘open access’ arrangements are available to companies which are not able to fund terminal developments themselves and wish to access terminal capacity on commercial terms in the future. The government will facilitate the dialogue necessary for these companies to have the opportunity to negotiate suitable commercial arrangements with the preferred proponents.”