The Full Court of the Australian Federal Court has endorsed the decision of the Australian Competition Tribunal not to open Australian miner Rio Tinto's Hamersley rail network in West Australia's Pilbara region to third party utilization.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, on June 30, 2010, the Australian Competition Tribunal had rejected an application by Australian miner Fortescue for Rio Tinto's Hamersley rail network to be declared open to other users. However, in mid-August of the same year, Fortescue had filed to the Federal Court to appeal the decision.
After the final decision, Rio Tinto said that it remains steadfastly of the view that its integrated operations would be severely impacted if third parties were permitted to run trains on its rail network.