Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto announced this week that its iron ore output in the fourth quarter ended on December 31, 2009 rose 49 percent from a year earlier to 47.2 million mt, as mines worked at full steam to meet strong global demand.
Rio Tinto, which published the figures in its Fourth Quarter 2009 Operations Review, said that the iron ore production in 2009 exceeded 217 million mt with a 13 per cent increase compared to 2008 setting a new record. The company's iron ore sales also set a quarterly record of 61 million.
Rio Tinto stated that output at its iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia were up 54 percent during the quarter year on year hitting 56 million mt. The Pilbara system consistently operated above its nameplate capacity in order to supply continuing strong growth in demand, the report said.
The company's sales volumes from the Pilbara region continued at record levels as well, reaching 56 million mt during the fourth quarter, an increase of one percent on the third quarter and 68 percent higher than the corresponding quarter of 2008.
Shipments to all major markets, including the largest single market, China, were maintained at a high level and were primarily priced on a benchmark or its equivalent provisional basis. The HIsmelt pig iron plant in Western Australia remains on a care and maintenance program to April 2010, due to depressed global pig iron prices.
It was also announced in the Q4 figures that on 5 December 2009 Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton signed binding agreements on the proposed iron ore production joint venture that cover all aspects of how the joint venture will operate and be governed. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton anticipate completion of the production joint venture in the second half of calendar year 2010.
Chief executive Tom Albanese said in the report: "We are seeing recovery across most of our key commodities, although we continue to be cautious on the state of the global economy going into 2010 as stimulus packages start to wind down. This was another very strong quarter for iron ore production, driven by continuing high demand from China."
Meanwhile, hard coking coal production from the Queensland coal operations decreased by two percent, compared with the same quarter of 2008 following a planned longwall changeover at the Kestrel mine in October 2009.
During 2009 Rio Tinto announced asset sales totalling $7.2 billion, of which $3.6 billion completed in 2009. Since February 2008, Rio Tinto has announced agreed asset sales of $10.3 billion.