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Australia’s iron ore oligarchs might have hogged the headlines, but Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Chris Ellison aren’t the only ones enjoying fantastic dividends after the nation’s most important export industry enjoyed its annus mirabilis. The biggest five exporters of Australian iron ore have already declared dividends totalling $59.5 billion for the year to June 30, and that could grow further when Mrs Rinehart’s Roy Hill Holdings publishes its accounts in coming months.

Australia’s historic commodities export boom extended into the current quarter, as soaring LNG, iron ore and coal sales pushed the trade surplus to a record $12.1bn in July. A 7.5 per cent lift in resources exports underpinned a 5 per cent monthly increase in the value of goods and services exports to $46bn, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed. Iron ore exports were up 3.5 per cent against the previous month to $19.1bn in July, on a seasonally adjusted basis, and were 66 per cent higher than a year earlier.

“We are so delighted to be sharing this vision with the Nyamal people, specifically via EWP which is the culmination of a long held desire from Troy’s grandfather to access economic benefits for his people. “We understand it is the first partnership between a company like ours and a Traditional Owner business, to conduct mining services on their own lands.”

The resilience of Australia’s iron ore and wider resources sector underlines the importance of the transformation of Australia’s economic and strategic orientation, which began 70 years ago this week with the signing of the ANZUS security pact with the United States, followed by a formal peace treaty with Japan. The deep complementarity between Australia’s resource-based economy and the Asian economies hungry for raw materials has continued as record amounts of high-priced iron ore have been shipped to China even as Beijing’s trade war has targeted Australia’s beef, barley, wine, seafood and coal exports. That’s because there is no ready substitute for Australia’s iron ore.

BHP will shower its shareholders with a record $US2-a-share ($2.74) final dividend after posting its biggest annual profit in 10 years. The company yesterday posted a massive 88 per cent jump in underlying profit to $US17.1 billion underpinned by its powerhouse Pilbara iron ore division which was responsible for more than 70 per cent of its earnings off the back of surging prices for the steel-making commodity.

EVEN the big rise in global coal prices has not been enough to stop a river of red ink through BHP’s Mount Arthur coalmine in the company’s annual results for the year to June 30. The results posted just before 5pm yesterday to coincide with a morning announcement in London were dominated by the Big Australian’s divestment of its oil and gas assets into a new stand-alone company with Woodside Petroleum. BHP said the new company would emerge from an all-stock transaction with BHP shareholders holding 52 per cent and Woodside 48 per cent of the new company valued at $41 billion.

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Gina Rinehart, Executive Chairman, Hancock Prospecting finalist for 2021 Industry Advocacy Award.

Rowan Dean Commentary courtesy of Sky News.

A KEY Native Title group in Western Australia’s Pilbara has received a boost with former Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh joining its board as an independent director.