How Australia Ships One Million Tons of Iron Ore Daily!

[@SamSeth]

I don't know how you did it, but you're very fortunate to have the opportunity to tour mines around the world. Top notch videos sir

[@AaronWitt]

It’s taken a long time for access like this and I still can’t believe it myself

[@ClaytonHartin]

Need that good sales pitch and very good email lol

[@woutvandersanden8288]

Generally speaking, these companies shy away from journalists because stories are often negative. This channel is solely interested in the machinery and equipment, so I’m guessing that the marketing departments are willing to give him a glimpse.

[@timpattydaechsel5988]

@@AaronWittI have question for you, do you have a submit a final version of your KZbin video to the mines before they allow you post it? …..love your work ….. I so wish I had your talent to make a living out your passion 😊

[@m.a.c.8366]

That is a seriously big operation and the volume of material moved is impressive. Thx for sharing.

[@tracenjez]

And there’s 2other companies in the same region doing it on this scale. There’s also smaller companies doing it by road

[@jackhansen7305]

Whilst large, this rail/port setup is less than 1/3 of the size of Port Headland which is just up the road.

[@harryhino2267]

I live on the east coast of Australia and have just returned from a "lap" of Oz, including WA. Glorious country over in the west and we loved the mine tours we did along with all the other attractions the state has to offer. Didn't get as much access as you, but the numbers they were quoting were eye watering. Thanks for taking the time to present this subject matter. Your presentation style, content and production is first class. No hooting or hollaring, a well written (and rehearsed) script that is clear and concise. You have another subscriber 👌

[@AaronWitt]

thanks mate!!

[@redwater4778]

Do they pay any tax to the government for the minerals?

[@harryhino2267]

@@redwater4778 Yep; to the state and federal governments. No idea how much though.

[@danieljohnstone3592]

I’m a contractor that works in the mines in WA I get to see every mine operation and they are very impressive I’m glad you got to see some of it .

[@rp1645]

May I ask what mine you work at. I am a WA life long resident. I own my own backhoe a Bucyrus Erie Dynahoe-190

[@tomassanchez3899]

Never knew there were mines in WA

[@edmundbarredo]

Mines are the backbones of WA.. good salary as well.

[@peterectasy2957]

do locomotives have fully preferential way , so they do not stop somewhere in the middlle ?

[@christophermgwadira4400]

People that greatly contribute to the smooth running of the world. Very underrated workforce.

[@JustinBrennan82]

Love the subtitles at the flashbut facility! I work for the other Big Australian in Remote Operations, it’s always great to get a different perspective on the value chain!

[@krzysztofkowalski2816]

i dont like the sci fi category. Its as fake as college/uni ed. Sci fi is seeming to be way more real.

[@Thors.hammer69420]

subtitles because nobody understand aussie talking. XD lmao

[@lukecharlton122]

If Australia taxed the mining companies exports appropriately, we could be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, as well as providing free electricity to their citizens, we would legitimately be back at the forefront of renewable solar energy, similar to the late 1980's. I'm all for mining our resources, but our beautiful country should be seeing more that what we currently are.

[@VnazT]

To the whole world means China. Australia is just a resource colony for the Chinese.

[@wim0104]

Same for most countries. Alternative deals are made, and pockets filled...

[@i.u.o.e8326]

Today's market price for iron ore is 106$ a ton think about how much it costs a company to build up the infrastructure just to ship it's product

[@markfowler2066]

If the Australian government started taxing exports, how many people working for companies like Rio Tinto would be replaced by robots to pay for the tax?

[@glorymanheretosleep]

No. Remain poor as we want you to be.

[@Mrcraziboi1]

What a pleasure to watch this! I worked at both 7 Mile and Cape Lambert about 6 years ago. Brought back a lot of memories. Hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

[@AaronWitt]

Right on!!

[@tonywilson4713]

@@AaronWitt I worked on the Commissioning of Yandi Junction South East, The T155 Port Expansion for Fortescue and did a stint in operations at Tom Price. You have made a mistake. We don't export a million tons per day. We export (in recent years) between 900 and 950 Million tons a year and with 365 days in a year that's is around 2.5 million tons a day. Here's a fun thing to discuss at some point. I work in control systems but my degree is in aerospace. I actually went into our mining because back in 2002 I met Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17) and he basically told me that mining for Helium-3 on the moon was being seriously considered. So I went off for some mining experience. Along the way got a lesson in reality. Jumping forward I heard Jeff Bezos (the other billionaire space clown) say he wanted to shift heavy industry into Low Earth Orbit where there'd be unlimited power and waste is not an issue, because it just floats away. Problem and I learnt this from working in our mining industry. Iron ore is between 50% and about 95% iron depending on the grade, but mostly its around 70% which is a very convenient number. At 70% 20tons of ore has about 14t of iron in it and 14 t is what the Space Shuttle could bring down as payload. Goin up it could take 30t but landing was limited to 14t So a mine like Tom Price that produces 20 million tons a year would need 1 million space shuttle flights to take the ore up and bring the iron back. Even if we magically came up with something 100 times better than the Space Shuttle we'd still need 10,000 flights a year. And that's just the easy problem to understand. That's what an aerospace engineer got from working in the Australian mining industry - REALITY. FYI - Since you're American. I did my degree at U. of Illinois. Go Illini.

[@XxTheKingllxX]

man i just found this vid and i ended my last shift in 2019 in cape lambert. Great money kinda miss the shift work not gonna lie haha

[@nicstokes236]

I work at Cape Lambert! Best place to live and work One thing you missed is that at the Port we also have a crushing and screening process plant for all of the ore that comes from 2 of our 17 mines, as they don't have the processing at the mine So we are like a full size minesite as well minus the haul trucks and diggers

[@AaronWitt]

Right on thank you for what you do

[@shinoyaugustin7089]

How can i apply for work there sir

[@basrurdilip8035]

Interesting video. As a ship's Captain, I've been to all the iron ore loading ports in Oz to load. That's another experience.

[@glendownton]

I've lived in WA most of my life, and worked for various companies that support the mining industry, and these 2 videos taught me more about how the mining operations actually worked than I've piked up in all that time.

[@grahamjacob97]

I spent almost 2 years doing mine site shutdown maintenance in the Pilbara (late 2016 to late 2018), and went to several Rio mines (and also BHP, Fortescue and others), spent a few days at Cape Lambert in July 2018. I didn't see the car dumpers there but worked on the similar ones at BHP Port Hedland. Although you mention a million tonnes a day in fact that is just the Rio Tinto operation - at something close to 900 million tonnes of iron ore produced and the vast majority exported it is more than 2 million tonnes per day. Cape Lambert is "small" compared with Port Hedland, which as of this year is exporting over 500 million tonnes per year (iron ore and other products but predominantly iron ore). Back in 2012 it was also the world's largest bulk export port with a "mere" 246.7 million tonnes.

[@AaronWitt]

Amazing thank you for the information

[@Nathan-cd9zz]

I work for another mining company from Perth on their autonomous fleet management systems. Awesome to see the whole process up close. Great video

[@shinoyaugustin7089]

How can i apply?

[@BrettWilliamson]

Living on the other side of Aus (NSW), we certainly know these operations are big, but you don't realise how big unless you've worked in them or watched excellent videos like this. These mines certainly generate $$$ for Australia.

[@gregj7916]

Yep WA paying Australia’s bills..

[@Sthuont]

@@gregj7916 Yet NSW alone produces over 30% of Australia's GDP, roughly equivalent to it's share of Australia's population. I get that people love to feel superior to others, and also love to feel aggrieved... but reality usually indicates otherwise.

[@-PORK-CHOP-]

Aaron, keep an eye out for a new $2.8 Billion deal between Fortescue and Liebherr for 475 Liebherr machines, including 360 battery-electric trucks, 55 electric excavators and 60 battery-powered dozers, to Fortescue’s mining operations in Western Australia, Liebherr and Fortescue will also develop a fully autonomous battery-electric haulage system for large-scale mining, integrating the latter company's Zero's battery technology into the equipment.

[@logantodd5943]

I work at Wabtec working on battery electric trains for mining operations in Australia!

[@andrewrees8749]

How will they recharge the trucks up, or just swap battery's over? down time either way !

[@lancearn7332]

I spent 12 years in the Pilbara working for Mt Newman Mining and BHP in the 1990's and FMG about 15 years ago.. Your vid brought back some fantastic memories. Thank you for that.. 👍

[@declanmcdonagh739]

Worked in cape lambert 2013 on the construction of the conveyors for Laing O’Rourke . Humidity was unbelievable. Brings back some great memories. Thanks

[@Machines.In.Action]

From the mines to the trains to the world - incredible to see how the supply chain works!

[@ToxicMrSmith]

Holy crap... Used to work at cape Lambert. I absolutely love that place and cant believe im seeing it on here. So many memories

[@GauthierLevier]

bro has the best job ever

[@ncard00]

But like the US, still using old diesel locos… Norway/Sweden have their iron ore railway electrified!

[@martinc.720]

@@ncard00 ok

[@mr.chilllax4641]

@@ncard00 yeah, keep in mind taht its not only 500km Rail

[@tristenklein5940]

The entire operation is an amazing feat of engineering especially off loading the train cars and conveyer systems absolutely astounding 👍👍

[@qatommy]

Thanks Aaron for another great series. Yes I love the big machines but you take it further.

[@nj_bars]

This is one of my favourite vids on the internet. Thank you!

The magnitude and scale of the operations is both astonishing and daunting and adono if it's necessarily good, looks amazing nonetheless (also first)

[@petermalanchuk8210]

Thank you, Aaron, for your hard work and your dedication to the construction, mining industries and more. The most important element of all of this is your attention and dedication to the employees of all of these industries, they get the work done and the products to the customers, by which the company profits and the shareholders profit. As such, Richard Branson, an English business magnate and co-founder of the Virgin Group, has core values and principles of running a company based on one philosophy, that philosophy is, in order of importance and priority: (1) your employees come first, (2) your customers come second and, (3) your shareholders come third. The process of the Rio Tinto Iron Ore facility is just awesome! To run the production 24/7/365, I'd imagine they much have a lot of in-place back-up systems to keep things going and a very busy maintenance crew. This is an excellent video!☺💯👍

[@ondoogy]

Great video thanks heaps 👍 Don,t forget you also have BHP and Fortescue running similar operations out of the Pilbara.

[@biscuit_guan]

What an experience you have and also to share it on KZbin.

[@nakinajay]

I miss running a Holland Lp Flashbutt Welder for Canadian National Railway. Seen the whole country and seen some beautiful places. Love your show good sir. Now I just operate graders, loaders , highlift log handlers, haul logs , and everything I can get my filthy little hands on lol.

[@evanhilton279]

Hey Aaron, you should do an episode on Donner Pass in California this winter! the Union Pacific snow clearing effort is so fascinating and it helps keep our supply chain alive!

[@johnkeviljr9625]

“It comes in here and goes there and comes out here, then it goes over there.” Awesome!

[@thedutchgamerguy8580]

Ive done some work for the manufacturer of the flash butt welding machine, in fact ive done some assembly on this model! Sooo much going into one of these, amazing Swiss quality!

[@Jpearse1]

Bloody awesome mate. Genuinely great KZbin content. Informative and well produced.

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching mate

[@jimmywatsup1]

The scale of this Operation is ridiculous, I work in earthworks, but operations like these still amaze me. They are just massive.

[@Everydaylove1]

I am a Indian Coal mining Engineer and i daily watching your videos 😊

[@MDiNGG]

Watching this at Cape Lambert as I type this! I worked at Gudai-Darri as well, for a civil construction company, we built that ROM wall and poured the concrete the structures and conveyors sit on now Working at Cape Lambert now for a construction contractor where we undertake upgrades for the plant. A video I can show my wife now to see what actually goes on. Thankyou!

[@Keiran-qr2ty]

lol the subtitles whenever an Aussie speaks is hilarious 😂

[@scotthouser9064]

Thank you for the subtitles, translating Australian into English.

[@ayubansari5379]

4:18 I like that part although you said it with a low tune, "I'm the Captain now!".

[@Rstytrsrs4325]

I have worked for Rio for nearly 20 years and there was a whole lot of stuff in these two videos that I have never seen so was great to see this done as the end to end process. Now you just need to get on the ship to China and show what happens at the other end 😊

[@suziederkins3310]

I did the Port Hedland harbour tour, it’s hugely fascinating. The numbers blow your mind.

[@ronblack7870]

so what happens to the fines? do they sell them cheaper or do they get dumped or combined with coarse ore?

[@TechnikMeister2]

Rio Tinto is only one of 16 mining companies just in the Pilbara. There are three such ports and these companies also mine in Brazil and Africa. All are majority Australian owned. Iron ore is exported all over the world. In total Australia controls nearly 60% of global iron ore supply. China takes about half of that.

[@homescholed]

This video rocks

[@stco2426]

Really impressed with your content. Thanks.

[@AaronWitt]

Thanks for watching

[@TOPTECH-r3r]

Watching these giants in action is so satisfying.

[@beastslas06]

Thanks for the insightful videos! I am watching from across the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka

[@tomsterbg8130]

They've really tried hard to make everything so automated that humans are only needed for what's impossible to reliably automate and then a complex task is simplified so one person is needed per single big task. This scratches my factory game itch.

[@RadioChief52]

I must have missed the part about how you transport a 400 meter long section of rail. Does it bend as the train hauling it goes around a curve?

[@bennyred3239]

Yeah, It bends. Exactly the same as the rail the train is sitting on.

[@voidjavelin23]

with the trains bogie duhh

[@perthmilligan]

Great video, massive thumbs up 👍

[@000Monkeylord]

Does Australia have any refineries to make steel in house or is it only a small amount for like local stuff

[@AbcDef-ct2kq]

Kee the good work up as I do enjoy your vids as they are very informative and to the point.

[@AaronWitt]

Thank you

[@drewl4762]

Make longer videos man! I could watch this all day

[@declandavis5611]

Would love to see you tour the BlueScope steelworks down in Port Kembla. Its the largest Steelworks in Australia

[@JordysRailVideos]

5:03 "that concludes our choo choo ride" love it

[@uberorange2116]

you should do a video on the biggest dragline/lighting plant in the southern hemisphere. it's at the Peak Downs mine in the Bowen Basin

[@timmyjones1921]

Awesome Video ' Thanks Aaron.

[@larryspiewak3731]

How do they keep the ore dry enough for the bulk shipper so that the 'liquefaction' of the cargo does not sink a ship in rough seas? Lack of rain?

[@howardsimpson489]

Lack of rain, low humidity and high temperatures, 50 C sometimes.

[@anthonyomahony3545]

Alot of time and water is used creating and maintaing the moisture content of the iron ore. Temperatures can reach the low 50's in the Northwest so its more an issue of dust suppression rather than any chance of cargo liquefication.

[@anthonyomahony3545]

And that's 50 celsius incase you are American!

[@waskasoometalworks3329]

So with the fines that are removed from the coarser material, are they conventrated and pelletized to ensure maximum iron yield?

[@justinm1721]

As someone who works on conveyor belts in quarries. The size of these belts are unreal. Would be good fun replacing them.

[@MalloryBoyd-fp9ip]

Nice video thanks, any thoughts on how , regionally, it’s smelted

[@2ddw]

What is the percentage of iron in what is finally loaded on the ships? It is interesting that it doesn't need a floatation step to concentrate like copper, lead, zinc, etc.

[@markprince972]

You should go to the mesabi iron range in Minnesota. Largest open pit mine in the world, still a major source of iron for the US steel industry. Awesome equipment and it would be cool to see a focus on the American side.

[@angushyde7590]

Great video. Why dont we make more steel in australia rather than shipping raw iron ore off overseas? Is it too expensive for us to process or do other countries want to make their own steel?

[@voidjavelin23]

yep, high labour cost

[@joshuahill5271]

It would help if you visited New Zealand, we do iron a bit differently. We extract it from black sand beaches with 1.2 million tonnes of black sand.

[@petes7796]

👍 wow what an amazing operation

[@off_mah_lawn2074]

Crazy how much of this they have felt comfortable automating

[@cooterbascher]

The stacker/reclaimers are impressive machines. They have 4 of them at the steel mill I work at.

[@johnmay6090]

Great vid!

[@mikeklein318]

That was amazing they move all that material around, but what do with the fines after it separated

[@NitinWelcome]

The documentary was a good one

[@lukeward9590]

Hey look its my home town haha, love your videos mate never thought karratha would feature in one 🤣

[@keinaanabdi6821]

As someone who is watching this from Somalia I had a little chuckle when he said the phrase “I am the captain now” 😂

[@budune]

Great video. I wonder how the product gets loaded off the ships at their destination?

[@kennethosuji720]

Such a huge capacity utilization with the necessary infrastructure in place, that is what we need in Africa.

[@NSPOOL]

This was pretty cool, im australian and have never been there

[@gregj7916]

Everything in Western Australia is remote & hot.

[@Diga784]

Great vid thx Aaron.

[@Hammertime054]

Absolutely brilliant 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@Damicske]

Question: how does the stacker take of the ore from the belt?

[@nmopzzz]

What happens to the fines? Just a different grade of ore then?

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

Amazing seeing the end result of the industrial revolution. The specializing of skills.

[@nft_synergy8880]

Came for the trains…you bless me with a dump truck 🤣🙌🥹

[@MikeT-TheRetiredColonel]

I love seeing these places, Aaron, cause me to go play on Google Earth a bit to explore from above - thanks, again, for the video :)

[@kneehats2311]

00:47 gyattt made my boy look like a lil kid

[@nigel6816]

Crazy thick, right

[@floydwilliams3321]

Very cool video

[@brianminsk8]

Did they tell you what the iron fines are used for? Do they just go to waste?

[@nathanroberts355]

You should vist port Hedland has biggest export port of major iron ore mining companies

[@tdb7992]

Western Australia is really at the forefront of mining, especially in mining technology. You can see why Western Australia is so filthy rich. The LNG mining/transport infrastructure in Western Australia is equally as impressive.

[@BasicEndjo]

is there a reason australia does not make it's own steel from that ore. australia does have coal mines aswell so it would not be difficult, or is it lack of water

[@emmanuelwanjohi3937]

Nice content.

[@dddsss2023]

very interesting video. Now it would be good for Australia to also make something out of the resources rather than just shipping them. AUS has so much potential, but it would need the industry established locally.

[@TheTomconroy]

Like watching a tour of my twenties. The Pilbara is a great place to make money when you're young.

[@Alanders333]

Another part of the King of the British Isles Financial portfolio!

[@techy0011]

How short in Aaron??

[@stefanhengsbach5433]

SATISFACTORY at its best ^^

[@TheKimberlyashton]

I heard they are automating the train and mine dump trucks, is that true?

[@mathbruce692]

Yep, long process but trying to get most trucks autonomous. Couple of the really old mines maybe not

[@Fayeburnmusic]

5:22 Caught your unedited raw LOG video lol. Nice video tho!

[@mzee5533]

That’s automation for you fellas. Hate it or like it but it’s the best technology

[@kennedymwale5772]

This is quite interesting 🤔 👍

[@uweradu1973]

It's a fascinating industry! The next step for Australia would be to process the ore locally and ship the feedstock steel across the ocean. With the vast potential for solar energy right there in the desert, a lot of train and ocean shipping of raw ore could be eliminated and the greenest steel could be produced. Australia needs to generate more added value locally rather than passing it on to China and other places.