History

ATEC Rail Group (ARG) was originally established as an unlisted public company in 1997 with a primary focus to develop and own rail infrastructure.

The company’s initial purpose was to promote an Inland Railway from Melbourne to Darwin via New South Wales and Queensland.After undertaking consistent negotiations with Governments at all levels for a number of years, ARG achieved success in gaining acceptances of the inland rail concept, as evidenced by a letter from the Prime Minister in 2005.

In July 2007, ARG as part of a Joint Venture secured an unsolicited PPP exclusive conditional mandate from the Queensland Government for the development of a rail corridor linking Toowoomba to the Port of Gladstone via the Surat Basin.

As this and other initiatives progressed, ARG’s business model evolved away from a visionary concept to one of a below-rail freight infrastructure developer and owner/operator. To this end the Board agreed to rebranding the company as ATEC Rail Group in 2011.

Key Milestones

2000 Completed a pre-feasibility study of a dedicated inland rail freight corridor from Melbourne to Brisbane.
2003 Completed a pre-feasibility study of a dedicated inland rail freight corridor linking Toowoomba and Gladstone.
2004 Commissioned an initial pre-feasibility study of an inland rail freight corridor linking Cloncurry/Mt Isa and Tennant Creek and on to the Adelaide to Darwin rail line.
2006 ATEC Limited submitted a business case for the development of the SBR. In December 2006, ATEC was granted a Conditional Exclusive Mandate from the QLD Government to seek to have the SBR brought to financial close. By June 2007, ATEC cleared all the conditions of the Conditional Exclusive Mandate.
2008 Submitted its Border Rail Business Case to the NSW and QLD Governments seeking to develop the first ever cross border rail freight corridor from two State Governments.
2008 Cockatoo Coal Limited takes a 5% shareholding in ATEC.
2008 Achieved material rezoning of the ATEC Freight Terminals Trust land at Charlton from rural to Terminal Operations.
2009 Entered into a MOU with China Rail Construction Corporation to define and enter into a Cooperation Agreement to develop rail infrastructure projects in Australia; Established Intermodal Terminal Services Pty Limited in joint venture with James Wilson Investment Trust.
2010 Entered into a MOU with Liberty Resources to pursue the Border Rail project; Increased ATEC’s shareholding of SBR from 20% to 33.3%.
2011 Closed an AUD$300m equity raising with Energy & Minerals Group, a US based specialized minerals and energy investor – consequently this has brought about rebranding in line with the company’s evolution.