Iron ore price, page-604

I'm not ignoring your post spuza - I'm thinking about it.

Earnings of a $1 for a share costing $5.50 sounds like a good ratio. But is it right? And aren't profits rather than earnings (esp earnings before tax) the point?

io at 65USD *0.75 = 48.75 USD less say 28USD for break even cost - give margin of $20USD.
20 * 170million tons = 3.4 billion earnings. With over 3 billion shares - you are close enough
to right with $1 a share earnings.

But that earnings is taxed. So investors (or traders like me) don't receive all of it. The tax office gets a chunk.

And some of it (about 60%, 62% last time from the NPAT of 1.222Billion) is retained so it does legitimately increases the value (the share price) of the stock for real long term holders - but the value is retained in the form of mining assets.