Iron Ore Mine Productivity

Thirteen iron ore mines, including most of the largest ones globally, were found on Google Maps and then their land areas in square miles were measured using the satellite view.  The Internet was used to identify the mines and also to find the latest available data on the annual amounts of iron ore produced at these mines.

The areas measured and the production data is found in the table below.   With this data, iron ore mine productivity (annual production in metric tons (mt) per square mile) was computed and is shown in the table. 

mine name	country	state /province /region	company	area -square miles	production million mt per year	annual production in mt per square mile
hopedowns 4	au	western australia/pilbara	rio tinto/ hancock	5	43	8,600,000
carajas	bz	para	vale	15	120	8,000,000
mount whaleback	au	western australia/pilbara	bhp billiton	10	77	7,700,000
vargem grande	bz	minas gerais	vale	3	23	7,666,667
mining area c	au	western australia/pilbara	bhp billiton	8	57	7,125,000
yandi	au	western australia/pilbara	bhp billiton	13	80	6,153,846
hamersley  (hub)	au	western australia/pilbara	rio tinto	25	133	5,320,000
minas itabiritos	bz	minas gerais	vale	8	32	4,000,000
christmas creek	au	western australia/pilbara	fortescue	13	50	3,846,154
samarco alegria	bz	minas gerais	vale/bhp billiton	6	22	3,666,667
cloudbreak	au	western australia/pilbara	fortescue	13	40	3,076,923
khumani king	sa	northern cape	assore/ african rainbow minerals	6	13	2,166,667
sishen	sa	northern cape	kumba/anglo american	20	36	1,800,000
			average	11	56	5,317,071

Measuring an iron ore mine using Google Maps’ satellite view is straight forward and likely to be accurate.  The production data is less certain as it relies on company reporting, which is hard to verify.  

With these qualifications, if the data in the table are reasonably correct, the data suggest that some mines are more productive than others and that no correlation between the land-area size of a mine and its productivity exists.  Many factors influence mine productivity.  Two reports, one from EY and one from PWC, identify and discuss such factors.  (Click here and here to read these reports.)  What might be interesting is to try to determine what factors at the individual mines listed in the table account for their productivity.