The world’s iron-ore powerhouse is preparing to reinvent itself

Vast heaps of crushed brown rock hem the Indian Ocean at Western Australia’s Parker Point port — each a stockpile of 200,000 tons of iron-ore, ready to be poured into a procession of bulk carriers bound for Asia’s steel mills. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, shipped its first cargo of the steelmaking ingredient from this spot in 1966, at the dawn of a boom that minted-billionaires and lifted the Australian economy, generating A$1.3-trillion ($820-billion) in earnings in the past two decades alone. Last year, iron-ore shipments accounted for about 5% of the country’s gross domestic product.