Western Australia's Mid West region is not short of iron ore mining juniors - it is after all Australia's most promising new iron ore province.

The key to standing out from the crowd is not just talking up resource prospects - the days of "mining the market" on the back of resource target announcements are well and truly over.

Junior explorers in today's world need more than just a good ore body.

They need to have a point of difference from their peers and work to a strategic plan with vision for company growth and project development.

Padbury Mining managing director Gary Stokes said this philosophy underpinned not only the development of the flagship Peak Hill iron project but also the growth of the company as a whole.

Located about 450 kilometres northeast of Geraldton, the Peak Hill project is contained within the ASX-listed company's 2500 square kilometre tenement holding in the Robinson Ranges, near other prospective and existing Mid West mining projects.

The project comprises two main prospects: magnetite at Telecom Hill, where an initial JORC-compliant inferred resource has been defined at 850 million tonnes at 27.3% iron, and direct-shipping ore hematite at Mt Padbury.

A $A5 million drilling program, scheduled for completion in the March quarter of 2012, is aimed at defining a hematite resource and upgrading the existing magnetite numbers.

Stokes said delineating a hematite resource would be a positive outcome for Padbury, providing early cashflows that would help underpin the development of the magnetite project.

Project work for 2012 is targeted at the development of a prefeasibility study, with definitive feasibility work scheduled for 2013-14.

Padbury is targeting production from Peak Hill by 2016.

Like all of the Mid West's prospective mining projects, Padbury will ultimately need access to infrastructure to get its product to market if it is to develop a viable mining project.

The board and company management share the concerns of other key stakeholders in the region about delays to the development of the long-awaited Oakajee port and associated rail infrastructure.

These concerns led Padbury to purchase the intellectual property developed by Yilgarn Infrastructure Ltd as part of its investor-backed proposal to build an open access, multi-user rail network and deep water port to service the Mid West's mines.

Vested in a wholly owned Padbury subsidiary, Midwest Infrastructure Pty Ltd, the IP has been independently reviewed and updated, with revised capital and operating expenditure figures, by international consultancy INDEC.

Due diligence on the review and update was also undertaken by Pacific Capital.

The data includes detailed engineering studies, project definition documents, financial modelling, Chinese investment agreements, financing term sheets and legal documents. It offers a viable, low-cost, service-based commercial model for the carriage of ore from the various proposed mining operations to Oakajee.

In its report, Pacific Capital confirmed that the service-based infrastructure model and revised operating expenses and capital expenditure offered significantly lower costs of development and tariffs to mine customers than those currently forecast.

Pacific Capital summarised the value proposition of the IP as follows: "[T]he Yilgarn IP Padbury has acquired will simplify and accelerate the development of an alternate ‘service provider' Mid West infrastructure solution should OPR not proceed."

With serious doubt over the current proponent's capacity to deliver the infrastructure, the IP gives Padbury the means to contribute to an infrastructure solution for the entire Mid West as well as meet its own transport needs.

"The purchase of the IP gives us a viable option to move forward," Stokes said.

"We do not want to be an infrastructure provider, but the IP gives us the capacity to contribute to an infrastructure solution for the entire Mid West."

Stokes said he had great confidence that the port and rail infrastructure would be developed - along with the Mid West mining industry.

"I am sure the problems with the development of the Oakajee port and regional rail network can and will be overcome - the mine customers and the investors who have sunk enormous amounts of money into their projects depend on it being built," he said.

While Padbury has every confidence in the scope and prospects of its flagship project, Stokes said the board had a bigger picture in mind for the company.

"Strategically, we believe it important that we look to other opportunities for mergers and acquisitions," he said.

"There is a great deal of sense to ensuring we have a pipeline of projects at various stages of development. This adds value and mitigates any risk associated with a single project operation.

"However, there are some key corporate objectives that we need to achieve this year to ensure we have the capacity to grow the company and return maximum benefit to our shareholders."

These objectives, which were articulated to shareholders at Padbury's 2011 annual general meeting, were:

- Finalising with 30% JV partner Aurium Resources the terms and means of bringing the Peak Hill project back into full Padbury ownership;

- Concluding successful negotiations for project investment and infrastructure development;

- Securing cornerstone investment; and

- Share consolidation.

"We are not content with just dipping our toes in the market as a mining junior," Stokes said.

"Our goal is to become a driving force in the industry and we have a motivated board and solid business strategies in place to support this goal."

*A version of this report, first published in the March 2012 edition of RESOURCESTOCKS magazine, was commissioned by Padbury Mining