Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Group has announced that its global iron ore output was record high in the fourth quarter ended on December 31, 2010 and in the whole year, as mines worked at full capacity in an environment of strong iron ore prices.
According to the company's fourth quarter 2010 operations review published on January 18, Rio Tinto Group's global iron ore output in the fourth quarter rose to 65 million mt, reaching 239 million mt for the whole of 2010. The amounts attributable to Rio Tinto, after subtracting material going to partners, was 50 million mt in the fourth quarter and 184 million mt in 2010.
Production and sales in Pilbara region set records
Accordingly, Rio Tinto's iron ore production in the fourth quarter rose six percent to 50 million mt, from 47 million mt in the same period of 2009, as production in the whole year reached 185 million mt compared to 175.04 million mt in the previous year, increasing nine percent.
The Pilbara operations of Rio Tinto Group in Western Australia also set new quarterly and annual production records at 61 million mt and 224 million mt compared with 56 million mt and 202 million mt respectively, a year ago. Sales volumes from the Pilbara region continued to set new records in response to growing demand as fourth quarter sales of 58 million mt were three percent higher than the corresponding quarter of 2009 and full year volumes increased nine percent to 223 million mt.
Force majeure declaration in Queensland remains in place
Rio Tinto Group's Australian hard coking coal production was 2.28 million mt in the fourth quarter, up eight percent over the fourth quarter of 2009 and was 8.97 million mt in 2010 rising 20 percent over 2009, following increased investment at the Queensland operations. Rio Tinto said that the force majeure declaration at the four Queensland coal mines remains in place. All the Queensland coal mines are operational but are still constrained in some way by weather impacts, including the impact on third party infrastructure.
Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said, "Running our operations at full capacity was a priority for Rio Tinto in 2010, in an environment of strong prices for most of our commodities. Our success is clearly demonstrated in iron ore where we set new quarterly and annual production records. During the quarter we approved a further $5.5 billion in value-adding growth projects, including the expansion of our Pilbara iron ore operations to 283 million mt a year."