"Given the negative posting on this forum, one wonders how mining ever survived in Australia before China began developing their economy. And given the emphasis placed on IO prices, you also have to wonder how our miners survived when IO was 32 bucks a ton. How long ago was that - eight years ago?"
BHP and RIO survived because they were mining world-class deposits at high rates relatively efficiently. They were shipping far higher quality ores, and either putting ore the same grade as AGO onto a long term stockpile, through a bene plant, or on the waste dump. They weren't spending anything like as much on exploration as AGO and FMG are now because they had so much high quality ore in reserve. They had smaller teams on minesites since people worked longer rosters or actually lived in towns instead of FIFO.
If we go back to pre-2003 margins it will be carnage, particularly amongst anyone not mining big tonnages or with big debt.
AGO Price at posting:
73.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
