The World's Biggest Iron Ore Windfall Is Fading for Australia
For much of this century, iron ore fines with 62% metal content from the Pilbara have set the global standard.
Source: Rio Tinto Group
Flying deep into the heart of Western Australia, Rio Tinto Group executives, politicians and media step off a chartered jet into a Pilbara airport, little more than a sunbaked shed with metal detectors. Cameras roll. Smiles flash. They are here for the unveiling of Rio’s Western Range, a new open-cut mine designed to pump out 25 million tons of iron ore a year.
But behind the fanfare, a harsher truth looms: Western Range isn’t about growth. It’s about keeping the machine running.