Rio Tinto Increases Iron Ore Production As Commodity Prices Fall

Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, continues to increase its iron ore output even as the commodity's price has dropped substantially. The company's iron ore production increased 13 percent in the month of December, and 17 percent for the whole of 2014, compared to 2013.

The company is not embarrassed that iron ore prices during 2014 fell from $ 135 per tonne to $ 70 per tonne in Qingdao, a major port in China. In the last quarter of last year, the company delivered a total of about 82.2 million tonnes of iron ore, as well as about 302.6 million tonnes for the full year. In 2014, the company's iron ore production grew 12 percent for the quarter and 11 percent for the full year.

The plan to expand production at the company's mines will continue this year. The company also said that the creation of infrastructure aimed at achieving production of 360 million tons per year has already been completed by 80 percent. In addition, the company expects to extract 330 million tonnes of ore from the Pilbara region this year.

The bulk of iron ore during 2014 was sourced from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where iron ore production reached about 280.6 million tonnes, of which the company's share was 231.5 million tonnes, and the rest is consumed by the joint venture partner companies.