FUNDING is not the only part of Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill iron ore project that is progressing slowly, with talks over a foreign worker deal still not fully resolved almost five months after they were first flagged.

Despite popular belief that the project had clinched an Enterprise Migration Agreement with the government, the Immigration Department confirmed yesterday that Roy Hill did not yet have a binding agreement to bring in foreign workers.

As Roy Hill spokesman Darryl Hockey was discussing the funding situation at a conference in Sydney, the department confirmed the EMA deal announced in May was an ''in-principle agreement that is not legally binding, but is subject to on-going negotiation and agreement on the detail''.

No such qualifications were made by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson when they announced the deal in May. The controversy that followed sparked fierce disagreement within the Labor cabinet.

Sources close to Roy Hill said conditions of the EMA deed were still being discussed with the department, and the final deed was expected to reflect both Roy Hill's submission and the existing EMA guidelines.