OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2012.  The High Court of Australia has held that the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, in deciding not to declare the Hamersley and Robe rail lines, wrongly endorsed consideration by the Australian Competition Tribunal of material it was not entitled to take into account. The High Court has accordingly remitted the matter back to the Tribunal to re-determine the matter. Rio Tinto is pleased to note that the High Court accepted its formulation of the proper test for the threshold question of whether a facility can be economically duplicated. The Minister and the Tribunal both applied the wrong test in determining this threshold issue, and the Tribunal will be bound to adopt the test Rio Tinto argued for on any reconsideration.

Rio Tinto's integrated operations in the Pilbara would be severely impacted if third parties were permitted to run trains on the system. As the Tribunal noted, the potential disruption and diseconomy costs would dwarf whatever benefits might exist in permitting third party access.