Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals is considering a listing in Hong Kong or Shanghai in a bid to get closer to its Chinese clients, the company's founder Andrew Forrest said Tuesday.

The comments from Forrest come a month after fellow Australian miner Resourcehouse abandoned plans for a US$3.6 billion float on the Hong Kong stock exchange citing unfavourable global conditions.

"We study the Shanghai market and Hong Kong market all the time," Forrest, one of Australia's richest men, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

"We haven't made any decisions as a board, but we are certainly setting up the opportunity."

Western Australia-based Fortescue, which with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto is one of the country's top three iron ore miners, has grown rapidly since its first shipment in 2008, with most of its ore bound for China's steel mills.

The company has since shipped more than 70 million tonnes of ore.

Forrest steps down as Fortescue's chief executive next week following a ruling in February that he misled investors on Chinese deals that could see him banned as a company director.

He said Tuesday that the company was not pinched by labour or skills shortages, saying Fortescue's major concerns were energy and taxes, including the government's planned levies on carbon emissions and mining profits.

Australian miner Resourcehouse cancelled its plan to list in Hong Kong for the fourth time in early June, saying markets had become too choppy.

The unprofitable firm, controlled by billionaire Clive Palmer, had put off three previous attempts to list in Hong Kong since 2009.

A listing in Hong Kong would have allowed Resourcehouse to boost its profile in China, while the company had planned to use a large part of the proceeds from the IPO to fund a thermal-coal project and iron-ore project in Australia.

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