Another Aussie iron ore miner sets records

Koolan Island: Dark band at the end of the pit is ore

Iron ore miner Mount Gibson Iron (ASX:MGX) on Friday announced record breaking sales from its West Australian operations.

The mid-tier Perth-based company boasted total full year ore sales of 8.8 million wet metric tonnes (Mwmt) from its three operating mines.

Mount Gibson also managed to increase its cash pile to $376 million as it implements a cost reduction program.

CEO Jim Beyer said the strong operational performance in the June quarter “provided a substantial buffer against the volatile market conditions which prevailed during the period.”

Mount Gibson is ramping up its Koolan Island operation to achieve 4 million tonnes per year by end-2014.

“This demonstrates the merits of our ‘portfolio management’ approach to operating our business, and gives us confidence we can increase sales to 9.0 to 9.5 million tonnes this financial year,” said Beyer.

This week Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) reported record breaking production at its Australian operations which is set to hit 290 million tonnes output capacity this year while BHP Billiton (LON: BHP) announced its on target to hit a 220 million tonne annualized production rate sooner than anticipated.