Gamble of the week: the bottom of the market for iron

On the face of it, things couldn't look bleaker for iron ore, says Alex Williams. But the career of one mining boss gives a different angle.

No one in their right mind wants to bet on iron ore today. Prices slid from $190 per tonne in 2011 to $38 in December. Producers have been crushed. Huge new projects funded at the height of the boom continue to tip new supply into an already oversupplied market, promising little prospect of any imminent turnaround. Iron-ore heiress Gina Rinehart, for example, has just begun exporting from her vast new Roy Hill project in Australia. In Brazil, iron-ore giant Vale is about to open its S11D mine in the Amazon, the largest mine it has ever built, costing $14.4bn.

Big miners, such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, have gained breathing space by pushing down unit costs by removing bottlenecks in their supply chains. For example, Rio's cash costs per tonne will be $11 by 2017, according to Deutsche Bank. But it has perversely lifted output yet further.

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