Mining giant Rio Tinto posted new quarterly and annual iron ore production results.
Rio’s global iron ore operations set a new quarterly production record at 65Mt and a new annual record at 239Mt, the company said in a statement. Of that total, 50Mt and 185Mt were attributable to Rio for the December quarter and full year, respectively.
Rio’s iron ore output increased 6% in the December quarter.
Rio’s Australian hard coking coal production was up 8% on the fourth quarter of 2009 to 2.28Mt and rose 20% on full year 2009, following increased investment at the Queensland operations.
Fourth-quarter output of hard coking coal was 2.28Mt, against 2.12Mt a year ago. Thermal coal production in Australia increased to 5.15Mt from 5.02Mt.
The company’s Australian thermal coal production was down 9% overall for the year, mainly due to wet weather in the Hunter Valley.
