A mining company from the smaller end of the scale says it has backing for a multi-billion-dollar port and rail project at Oakajee in WA’s Mid West.

The claim has plenty guessing, with Padbury mining saying it has an agreement which will allow it to fund the $6 billion project.

The company has a very wealthy private backer, but will not say who it is.

Padbury managing director Gary Stokes says negotiations have been going on for about 18 months and despite an announcement to the stock exchange, the backer will remain anonymous.

“We have a binding agreement with them executed obviously before we went into the trading halt, but yeah, no we're keeping it under wraps at this stage,” he said in an interview with the ABC.

“We're not announcing who the investor is.”

Mitsubishi had been vocal in its support for the project, until its interest waned and the plan was shelved last year.

Stokes says the new proposal will be more inclusive, and therefore successful.

“I can't answer for Mitsubishi specifically, but I think it's fair to say they were pretty focused on their own mine,” he said.

“If you look at their rail route, it went straight to their mine; I don't know that it was really a regional solution.

“I think they were looking to get their return out pretty quickly, and the only way you can do that is to make tariffs higher, and you make tariffs higher and then the mines become marginal or unviable.”

Comments from the Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance suggest it is excited that the long-awaited Oakajee port may finally be going ahead.

The alliance says that while the Geraldton Port seems fine for now, iron ore producers will need another export facility pretty soon.

“We're still only a couple projects away from filling the Geraldton Port to capacity,” he said.

“The Geraldton Port also has some fundamental problems in term of surge issues and further development required to even reach its potential.”

The West Australian state government is holding back its enthusiasm for now.

It says there are still a number of hurdles to be leaped before Padbury’s project will go ahead.

The Government was not aware until a few days ago that Padbury was making its announcement about Oakajee, saying the firm still has not secured rights.