Pilbara juniors scramble for rail deals Pilbara iron ore players are scrambling to stitch up rail haulage deals as they shy away from building infrastructure due to high capital costs. Analysts believe the chances of a new rail line being built in Western Australia's north are diminishing as junior iron ore miners look for cheaper ways to haul the bulk commodity amid lower prices. Explorers and producers are eyeing the upcoming sale of Fortescue Metals Group's rail asset named The Pilbara Infrastructure, and potentially sharing rail access or adding capacity. Hong Kong-based explorer Brockman Mining signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with junior Flinders Mines on Thursday to pool infrastructure and transportation costs for its proposed iron ore projects in the east Pilbara. Brockman has also appointed rail operator Aurizon to supply infrastructure to its Marillana and Ophthalmia projects, without giving a dollar value for the agreement. It comes as debt-laden Fortescue recently missed its June 30 deadline to sell a stake of roughly $US3 billion of its port and rail infrastructure. The company now expects a sale in the September quarter. Iron ore producer Atlas Iron is interested in the sale alongside BC Iron, whose products are already hauled and shipped by The Pilbara Infrastructure. Fat Prophets Resources analyst David Lennox said the recent announcements were an early indication that smaller iron ore miners could not afford to develop a logistics chain from the mine to port. Adding capacity to Fortescue's rail line would be the cheapest approach for those players, he said. "We think the other potential producers up there will do that," Mr Lennox said. That would be the obvious avenue that any future agreements would be looking at. Mr Lennox said it would cost billions of dollars to replicate existing rail lines, making it attractive for Atlas Iron to secure third party access to Fortescue's line. In the current environment, most miners could not afford the cost of new infrastructure, he said. "Miners aren't in the business of moving product from A to B," Mr Lennox said. Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill project was not exempt from the same cost pressures and would most likely look to cheaper options, he said. Global miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton built most of their Pilbara rail infrastructure decades ago.