YOU would be hard-pressed to find a single mention of their pastoral stations in their annual reports. So why do mining companies own livestock?
On Tuesday, iron ore giant Rio Tinto announced it would sublease one of its Pilbara stations, the Karratha station, to the Ngarlama Aboriginal Corporation.
Rio has leased and managed the cattle station since 1966 - making it one of its longest-standing operations - yet there is no mention of it, or any of its other five Pilbara stations, in its most recent 232-page annual report.
Rio is not alone. Its main rival, BHP Billiton, holds pastoral leases, as does gold miner Northern Star Resources. When the Chinese-owned Citic Pacific expanded into the Pilbara through a deal with businessman Clive Palmer almost a decade ago, it promptly purchased a pastoral lease and constructed a multibillion-dollar project on it.
Rio Tinto's iron ore head Andrew Harding said pastoral leases were about access.
"It just provides us with options," Mr Harding said.
"It's all about land access."
When resources companies wish to explore, construct and mine in Western Australia's resources-rich Pilbara, they need to consult with native title holders and pastoral leaseholders.
By holding the pastoral lease, the miner gets to bypass the latter negotiations which makes constructing key infrastructure such as railways that much easier.
Pastoralists and Graziers Association vice-president Ellen Rowe said miners can also use a pastoral lease to gain control over assets they would not normally have a right to.
"They are shoring up control," Ms Rowe said. "They also get control over the water resource, which the pastoralist has the rights to."
If a miner wants to build a heavy haulage road, they sometimes use the rights of a pastoral lease holder to upgrade a road rather than go through a separate approvals process.
So is the presence of miners holding pastoral leases good for the rural sector?
Ms Rowe said there were pros and cons. She said sometimes miners seemed reluctant to collect their stray cattle, even though they have managers on the properties charged with running operations. "The downside is that because it's not coming out of their individual pockets they don't seem to be as conscientious about the operations. It's different when it's your own blood, sweat and tears that have gone into it," Ms Rowe said. "But that said, they generally adopt a good neighbour policy and keep the infrastructure in good order and have the money to keep operations going during tough times, rather than letting it go into disrepair. That's a good thing."
Rio is in the process of subleasing three out of its six Pilbara pastoral stations, including the Karratha station.
The new sublease holder, the Ngarlama people, are the traditional owners of the West Pilbara coastal areas and their land lies under some of Rio's most important infrastructure, including large sections of its railway.
The Ngarlama-run NAC is one of the biggest Aboriginal corporations - it received $25 million from Rio in 2011 - but it has been plagued by infighting.
While Mr Harding would not disclose the terms of the deal, he said NAC made a straight payment to Rio and the deal did not involve any other conditions such as giving Rio greater access to Ngarlama land.
Mr Harding said it was a "natural choice" given the Ngarlama-run NAC already operated the neighbouring Mount Welcome Station.
Mining billionaires Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart have been buying Pilbara pastoral leases recently, although they appear to be legitimate expansions into the rural sector as opposed to being used to advance their mining interests.
