Australia-based miner Rio Tinto, the world's second biggest iron ore producer, has announced that in the fourth quarter of last year iron ore production from its Pilbara operations in Western Australia decreased by three percent year on year to 83.6 million mt, due to normal maintenance cycles. In the given quarter, the company's iron ore shipments from its Pilbara operations amounted to 86.8 million mt, falling by one percent from the same quarter of the previous year.
In 2019, the company’s iron ore production from its Pilbara operations totaled 326.7 million mt, decreasing by three percent, while its iron ore shipments totaled 327.4 million mt, also down three percent, both compared to 2018. The fall observed in iron ore shipments primarily resulted from the negative weather conditions as well as operational challenges in the first half of 2019. While the firm commenced trials of trading at Chinese ports in October 2019 in addition to direct sales from Australia, its forecast for 2020 iron ore shipments from its Pilbara mine is 330-343 million mt.
Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said, “We finished the year with good momentum, particularly in our Pilbara iron ore operations and in bauxite, despite having experienced some operational challenges in 2019. We are increasing our investment, with $2.25 billion of high-return projects in iron ore and copper approved in the fourth quarter. We also boosted our exploration and evaluation expenditure to $624 million in 2019, further strengthening our pipeline of opportunities.”