Any old iron

No blog entries lately as I've been in Australia with a group of journalists looking at Rio Tinto's iron ore mines. It was hot - over 40 degrees - and exhausting, but made an interesting change. I didn't see much of Perth, where I flew to, let alone get the chance to check out the music scene. We flew up to the Pilbara region which is rich in iron ore and checked out a mine where the trucks are as big as houses and the diggers as big as churches (to quote the Sunday Times). Also took a look at the ports that ship millions of tons of ore to China and Japan, and at one of the largest heavy haul railway systems in the world. The journos seemed impressed, but whether their articles can help us achieve victory over the proposed bid from BHP Billiton remains to be seen.