Rio Tinto posts quarterly iron ore records

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto on January 17 posted record iron ore production in the fourth quarter of 2011, but low grades saw copper output slump 23 percent. In its quarterly update, Rio said iron ore production notched a new record of 65 million tonnes in the quarter and 245 million tonnes for the year.
However, shipments were below output at 239 million tonnes due to extreme weather early in the year at its flagship Pilbara region in Western Australia. Production of hard coking coal dropped two percent year-on-year while thermal coal was down three percent on 2010, due to flooding on the east coast.