Australia Banned Selling Its Iron Ore. Then It Found a Mountain of It

In May 1938 the federal government announced a ban on iron ore exports. A government geologist had warned that Australia could become an importer of iron ore within little more than a generation. Today Australia supplies more than half of the iron ore traded across the world's oceans, almost all of it from the Pilbara in Western Australia, and iron ore is the nation's biggest export. This is the story of how that happened: Lang Hancock's 1952 flight through a gorge on the Turner River (as he told it), Stan Hilditch's 1957 find at Mount Whaleback, the first export licence of just 500 tons in December 1960, the Japanese long-term contracts, and the building of mines, towns, ports and railways at remarkable speed. Hamersley Iron built its mine, town, port and 182-mile railway in about 20 months, the first Pilbara ore left Port Hedland in June 1966, and the 426 km Mount Newman railway was built in 21 months. Then the modern Pilbara: Port Hedland's 580 million tonnes a year, BHP's 2001 record train of 682 wagons, Rio Tinto's AutoHaul driverless trains watched over from Perth, and fleets of driverless trucks. The video also covers the honest part: prices, reliance on China, Simandou in Guinea, falling ore grades, green iron pilots, and the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Pilbara, including the Kariyarra, Ngarluma, Eastern Guruma, Nyiyaparli, and Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples. Thumbnail photos via Wikimedia Commons: Mount Goldsworthy 1963 and today by Philiphist (CC BY 3.0); Pilbara Iron locomotives and the Mount Whaleback mine by Graeme Churchard (CC BY 2.0). Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:42 Running Out 4:01 Red Walls in the Rain 5:37 Five Hundred Tons 7:48 Twenty Months 10:23 Half the World's Iron 11:59 The Train With No Driver 14:42 Forty Kilometres of Water 16:01 The Honest Part Video clips via YouTube CC BY 3.0: Hedland Camera Club, Herman van Ree Courtesy of: BHP, Fortescue, Main Roads Western Australia, Pilbara Ports, Rio Tinto Photos via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0: Graeme Churchard, photobom, wilford peloquin CC BY 2.5 au: Gnangarra CC BY 3.0: Philiphist, S. Dowling, CSIRO creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Clip sources:    • Karajini EcoRetreat, Camp site 55 Sunset -...      • Autonomous Haulage at South Flank      • The Future of Mining? Testing a Giant Batt...      • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) timelapse con...      • Hedland Road and Rail Safety Improvements      • World first delivery of iron ore with worl...      • Lumsden Point | Port of Port Hedland | Apr...      • Joffre Gorge Sunrise - 17 May 2024      • Joffre Gorge - Karajini NP - Sunset wester...      • This is IROC - 2026      • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) Solomon Proje...      • Double shuffle at the Port of Port Hedland      • From the Archives: The Newman Story (1969)      • Rio Tinto | 60 years in Western Australia      • From the Archives: World Record breaking t...      • Rio Tinto | Simandou: Unearthing the future      • There’s more to a career with Rail than yo...      • From the Archives: First Ore Leaves from M...      • Newman Timelaps Video 7 Dec 2022      • Fortescue’s autonomous truck fleet surpass...      • Rio Tinto | Tom Price Belt Replacement      • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) timelapse foo...      • Sunrise at the Port of Port Hedland      • EP 050 - Day 40 Port Hedland Harbour Tour ...      • From the Archives: The Iron Treasure Chest...      • From the Archives: Ore for the Asking (1972)      • Radio Hill, Newman - Sunset 20 May 2024      • Rio Tinto | Showcasing our world-class Sim...      • Autonomous haul trucks achieve one billion...      • Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) Hamersley Rai...      • Celebrating 15 years of Utah Point