Today’s news is all about iron ore and the top seven mines producing it! Iron ore reached record highs in February 2011 at $190 a tonne and while the prices aren’t back up there yet, it’s worth noticing a small comeback. The iron ore market is extremely competitive and six out of the following top seven are located in Australia. Looks like we may be sending some earthmoving equipment over there if this keeps up!

1. Hamersley Mines: owned by Rio Tinto and includes nine mines all in Western Australia. The mines are treated as a single operation and put up 163 million tonnes of iron ore in 2014. Funnily enough, they are the largest mine with the lowest cost of operation.

2. Carajas Mines: owned by Vale and consists of three mines in Brazil. Carajas saw 120 million tonnes come up in 2014 and it is believed to be the highest grade iron ore mine in the world.

3. Chichester Hub: owned by Fortescue and is made up of Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mines. They reached capacity of 90 million tonnes produced in 2014 and are also located in Western Australia.

4. Yandi mine: owned by BHP Billiton, operated in Western Australia, and produced 80 million tonnes in 2014.

5. Mt Whaleback: also owned by BHP Billiton, also in Western Australia, and nearly reached it’s sister mines production at 77 million tonnes last year.

6. Solomon Hub: owned by Fortescue and is made up of two mines. The hub is located just west of it’s sister hub, Chichester. Solomon is believed to have produced 58 million tonnes in 2014.

7. Area C: led by POSMAC JV with major BHP Billiton’s ownership. This is also located in Western Australia and put up 57 million tonnes in 2014.

*All information for this story was taken from mining.com.