The JiuJiang group is providing up to $800 million in financial backing to help Australian-registered CU River Mining extract millions of tonnes of iron ore from a mine on the Woomera Prohibited Area in central Australia, where the United States and Australia test state-of-the art weapon systems. Blast off from Woomera for the HIFiRE4 Hypersonic test . Credit:Defence department Though the JiuJiang group claims to be privately owned, its chairman Zhao Yujiang is a prominent Hebei provincial member of the Chinese Communist Party, a deputy to China's 12th National People's Congress, and has travelled abroad as part of Chinese government delegations. In addition, the JiuJiang group's steel mills in Hebei province were integrated with those operated by state-owned enterprises in 2010. This has caused the JiuJiang group to be described by senior Chinese Government ministers as a "daughter company" to larger steel making state-owned enterprises. It is unclear whether JiuJiang's involvement with Chinese state-owned-enterprises would require Mr Bolkus, as a former cabinet minister, to declare his links to JiuJiang under the Attorney General's department's new foreign interests register. He has not registered to date.

A spokeswoman for the department said written notifications had been sent to a wide range of people making them aware of their potential obligation to register, and that there were "additional obligations for former Cabinet Ministers and recent designated position holders". Loading Mr Bolkus did not respond to efforts by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald to contact him. The iron ore is in the Cairn Hill mine on the Woomera site, one of many tenements bought by CU River in 2014. The company plans to ship the ore direct to China from its own purpose-built port terminal in Port Augusta in South Australia. CU River has offered $250 million to buy a disused power station at the port. But Australia’s security agencies have argued that the military and space research activities at the site are of significant interest to foreign intelligence services, a fact backed by a review commissioned and accepted by the Federal government last year.

“The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has noted that Australia’s position as a major commodity supplier, scientific and technological innovator, and potential joint venture partner makes it a target of foreign states seeking to gain advantages,” said the review by former senior public servant Gordon de Brouwer. Woomera was the site where the US and Australia conducted a number of tests of nuclear weapons in the 1950s. This is one in 1953. Credit:The Age archive The report urged the government to consider only allowing companies with majority Australian ownership to operate within the Woomera Protected Area, and only allowing Australian workers on the site. Former Defence director of security intelligence, Clive Williams, said he was not in favour of Chinese or other mining interests having access to the Woomera site because a large secure area was needed for military testing. CU River is owned and directed by Chinese-born businessman Yong Gang Shan, who is a Chinese citizen, but has a residential property in Adelaide. Mr Shan established CU River in 2014 and has a long background in China's steel industry.

JiuJiang Mining Australia will also be engaged by CU River as the main contractor at the Woomera mine. The Defence Department has foreshadowed Woomera being used at an “increased tempo” due to the “introduction into service of new air warfare capabilities such as the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, the EA-180 Growler aircraft and other advanced military systems”. Defence outlined its position in a response to questions on notice from South Australian Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick in February. Woomera is valued by Australia and allies such as the United States because its remote location provides extremely low electromagnetic interference. “The secure physical and electronic environment of the Woomera Prohibited Area must be maintained to the extent possible for defence testing purposes,” the Defence Department advised Senator Patrick.