The full story
How ore gets from the mine to market
Bulk ores such as iron ore, coal, bauxite and phosphate are mined in hundreds of millions of tonnes a year and are worth relatively little per tonne, so moving them cheaply is as important as mining them. Most big bulk mines are built with their own transport chain: conveyors from the pit, a railway or pipeline to the coast, and a port with stockyards and shiploaders.
Overland conveyors
A conveyor is a rubber belt running over idler rollers, driven by pulleys at the head end. Long systems are built as a chain of separate flights, each with its own drives. The Bou Craa system in Western Sahara, about 100 km in 11 sections, is the longest; it carries phosphate rock to the coast at about 2,000 tonnes an hour.
Heavy-haul railways
- Pilbara, Western Australia: private lines run by BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and Roy Hill carry ore to Port Hedland, Dampier and Cape Lambert. BHP's 2001 test train, 7.353 km and 682 wagons, is the longest ever run.
- AutoHaul: Rio Tinto's driverless trains have run across its Pilbara network since 2018.
- Iron Ore Line, Sweden and Norway: Kiruna to Narvik, completed 1902, now worked by LKAB's 750 m, 8,600 t trains.
- Mauritania Railway: 704 km from the Zouérat mines to Nouadhibou, with trains up to about 2.5 km long.
Ports and ships
At the coast, car dumpers tip the wagons, stackers and reclaimers build and dig stockpiles, and shiploaders fill bulk carriers. Port Hedland is described by Pilbara Ports as the world's largest bulk export port by tonnage, with 573.6 million tonnes in 2023–24. The largest ore carriers, the Valemax class, take about 380,000 to 400,000 tonnes. At the other end, unloaders empty the holds; on the Great Lakes, Hulett unloaders did that job from 1899.
Slurry pipelines
Fine concentrate can be pumped as a slurry. Anglo American's Minas-Rio pipeline in Brazil is 529 km long, from the mine to the Port of Açu.
Why it matters
- For bulk ores, the transport chain can decide whether a deposit can be mined at all.
- Rail and port capacity limits how much a mining region can export.
- Moving ore by belt, electric train or pipeline instead of trucks cuts fuel use per tonne.
More machines: all mining equipment, haul trucks and autonomous trucks. Places: mining in Australia, Sweden, Brazil, Mauritania and Western Sahara; the minerals: iron ore and phosphate.
Questions people ask
What is the longest conveyor belt in the world?
The longest conveyor belt system runs about 100 km from the Bou Craa phosphate mine in Western Sahara to the coast at El Marsa, near Laayoune. It was completed in 1972 and is made of 11 sections of roughly 9 to 11 km each, so it is a chain of belts rather than one single belt. NASA says it carries about 2,000 tonnes of phosphate rock an hour.
What is the longest train ever run?
On 21 June 2001 BHP ran an iron ore train from Yandi to Port Hedland in Western Australia that was 7.353 km long, with 682 wagons and eight locomotives spread along it. It weighed 99,734 tonnes and carried about 82,000 tonnes of ore 275 km. It is still listed as the longest and heaviest train ever run.
What is AutoHaul?
AutoHaul is Rio Tinto's system of driverless heavy-haul trains in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Its first loaded run without a driver was in July 2018, and the company said in December 2018 that the system was fully running. Rio Tinto calls it the world's first autonomous heavy-haul long-distance rail network, which is the company's description.
What is the biggest bulk export port in the world?
Pilbara Ports describes Port Hedland in Western Australia as the world's largest bulk export port by tonnage. It handled 573.6 million tonnes in 2023–24, almost all of it iron ore from the Pilbara mines.
What is a Valemax ship?
Valemax ships are very large ore carriers of about 380,000 to 400,000 deadweight tonnes, built for the Brazilian miner Vale to carry iron ore to Asia. The first, Vale Brasil, was delivered in 2011. They are the largest bulk carriers ever built.
How does a slurry pipeline carry ore?
Ore is ground fine, concentrated and mixed with water into a slurry, which is pumped through a steel pipe and dewatered at the far end. Anglo American's Minas-Rio pipeline in Brazil runs 529 km from the mine to the Port of Açu and was designed for about 26.5 million tonnes a year.
