BHP and FMG break export records, MinRes finally delivers, Rio and Roy Hill are cruelled by Mother Nature

BHP and Fortescue shipped record volumes of WA iron ore for the financial year just gone, while Mineral Resources looks to have finally met guidance at its troubled Onslow Iron project.

But the 12-month period ended June 30 was not blue sky for all of the Pilbara’s key iron ore players, with Rio Tinto and Roy Hill hit hard by stormy weather.

Data obtained by The West Australian showed BHP dispatched about 290 million tonnes of the steelmaking commodity during the 2025 financial year. This was up from 287mt in FY2024 and 282mt in FY2023.

Fortescue shipped around 198.2mt during FY2025, according to the data, compared with 191.6mt and 192mt across FY2024 and FY2023, respectively.

BHP and FMG use Port Hedland to export iron ore and the data quoted by The West typically varies to actual annual results the two companies report in late July by a range of between 0.1mt and 0.5mt.

Meanwhile, Rio Tinto, unlike its two main Pilbara iron ore rivals, did not have a bumper year.

Rio shipped about 321.2mt from its Dampier and Cape Lambert port facilities to continue a multi-year downward trend.

It exported 331.8mt in FY2023 and 328.5mt in FY2024. The FY2025 figure quoted for Rio can vary to the actual output result by about 1mt.

Rio’s massive iron ore machine was hampered by four cyclones that tore through vast swathes of the Pilbara across January and February.

A key piece of equipment needed to ship about 13 per cent of the miner’s WA ore was out of action for almost a month, while BHP and FMG came off relatively unscathed after the worst of the weather missed Port Hedland.

The West in April revealed the high winds and torrential rain had sunk Rio quarterly iron ore shipments to their lowest level since 2019 and dampened hopes of WA’s most prolific miner reaching its annual production target.

Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill also suffered significantly at the hands of Mother Nature during cyclone season.

Sources told The West the output problems for Roy Hill, which ships from Port Hedland, stemmed from a key haulage route near Marble Bar being blocked for weeks due to flash flooding.

Roy Hill’s year-on-year production fell about 2.5mt to 64mt, according to the data.

Mineral Resources’ 147-kilometre Onslow Iron haul road that links the company’s flagship Ken’s Bore mine to the Port of Ashburton was also badly damaged by wet weather.

A spate of truck rollovers on the privately-owned road caused WorkSafe to impose speed restrictions on trucks, which put a further brake on export efficiency.

Onslow Iron guidance for the 2025 financial year was trimmed down twice through April and May to currently sit between 13.8mt and 14.1mt.

The data shows MinRes shipped about 13.8mt by the end of the financial year but had loaded 14mt onto its transhippers by the July 1 cut-off date, meaning it could potentially go with the larger figure when reporting its results later this month.

MinRes shipped maiden ore from Onslow in May last year and aims to ramp up to 35mt per annum.