Rio Tinto officially announced the resumption of its iron ore port operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on March 30, 2026, after the passage of Tropical Cyclone Narelle. While ship loading at East Intercourse Island, Parker Point, and Cape Lambert B recommenced on March 28, repairs are ongoing at the Cape Lambert A facility, which is expected to return to service in early April. The company estimated that recent weather events, including Cyclone Mitchell in February, have impacted total shipments by approximately 8 million tonnes, though it maintains its annual shipment guidance of 323 to 338 million tonnes for 2026.

【SMM Steel】A cyclone that earlier hit Australia's northeast is now threatening LNG and mining ops in the west. System Narelle is expected to intensify as it moves parallel to the Pilbara coast. It threatens key LNG facilities and iron ore mines. Ports are clearing vessels. Australia, the top iron ore exporter, remains vulnerable. Narelle earlier forced closures of bauxite and manganese mines.

Indian steelmakers, led by JSW Steel, are increasingly sourcing high-grade Pilbara ores from Australia as China imposes selective import restrictions on certain BHP Group products. Industry reports indicate that Indian mills are leveraging these supply diversions to secure premium ores at competitive spot-market rates, stabilizing feedstock availability for their expanding integrated plants. This trend supports India's aggressive capacity growth targets while allowing Australian exporters to diversify their demand base away from a single dominant market.

This week, ferrous metals rebounded from the bottom. At the start of the week, coking coal and coke led the futures higher, mainly driven by rising crude oil prices in the overseas market, which pushed the energy and chemicals sector stronger accordingly; mid-week, both the U.S. and Iran signaled a more relaxed stance toward war, easing geopolitical tensions, while coal prices fell in tandem, weakening the cost-side logic, and ferrous metals fluctuated at highs; in the latter half of the week, worsening short-term liquidity issues in BHP's iron ore port inventory triggered stronger iron ore prices in the overseas market, while the Middle East situation remained volatile, reinforcing cost support and pushing ferrous metals higher again. In the spot market, supported by futures, end-user and arbitrage purchase sentiment both improved WoW this week......

On February 26, 2026, Alien Metals announced a targeted, iron-focused exploration program scheduled for Q2 2026 across its Pilbara portfolio in Australia. The program aims to explore the Vivash Project, which adjoins Fortescue's Vivash Southwest Mineral Resource that holds a 28 million tonne capacity at 58.8% Fe.

Australian producer Fortescue applied to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on February 17, 2026, to build the Wyloo North iron ore project in the Pilbara. The project has a planned capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and an average iron grade of 59.6% Fe. Fortescue plans to process the ore at its existing Eliwana facility to optimize current infrastructure.

On February 8, 2026, the Pilbara Port Authority resumed operations at Port Hedland, the world’s largest iron ore export hub, following the passage of Cyclone Mitchell. Other major terminals, including Ashburton, Cape Preston West, and Dampier, resumed operations on February 9. While berths were cleared as a safety precaution on February 6, the quick resumption of activity has eased immediate concerns over a significant disruption to February shipment volumes for BHP and Rio Tinto.

Australian port authority Pilbara Ports resumed operations at Port Hedland at 12pm local time (4am GMT) on 8 February because Cyclone Mitchell passed the area. Port Hedland is a major iron ore export hub in Western Australia (WA). Pilbara Ports has not reopened the ports of Ashburton, Cape Preston West, Dampier, and Varanus Island, it said on 8 February. It cleared all berths at the export hubs, which handle LNG and iron ore exports, because of expected cyclonic weather on 6 February. Cyclone Mitchell has passed WA's iron ore-rich Pilbara region and moved to the southern part of the state, according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

【SMM Steel】UK-based company Binding Solutions has reached an agreement with Mitsui Iron Ore Development to produce low-carbon iron ore pellets in Western Australia's Pilbara region. The company's technology significantly reduces energy consumption and CO2 emissions compared to conventional pellet production processes. The partnership will utilize a low-energy cold agglomeration process to transform lower-grade iron ore fines into higher-value pellets. These pellets are suitable for electric arc furnace steelmaking, supporting steelmakers' decarbonization efforts. Binding Solutions has previously conducted industrial trials with producers such as British Steel and aims to build an industrial-scale production plant.

According to MiningNews.net, West Coast Silver encountered high-grade silver ore and indications of gold in the first drilling at its Elizabeth Hill project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The initial batch of drilling included 12 holes, with a planned drilling depth of 1,183 meters. The first two holes encountered a thick orebody at shallow depths. The first hole encountered 21 meters of ore at a depth of 10 meters, with a silver grade of 1,047 g/mt, including an 8-meter-thick orebody with a grade of 2,632 g/mt. The richest ore section was encountered at a depth of 27 meters, with 1 meter of ore at a grade of 15,071 g/mt. Previous drilling by Alien Metals, the former owner of the mine, encountered 21 meters of ore at a depth of 12 meters, with a silver grade of 730 g/mt. The second hole encountered 15 meters of ore at a depth of 1 meter, with a silver grade of 723 g/mt. This included 3 meters of ore starting at a depth of 1 meter, with a silver grade of 2,639 g/mt, and 1 meter of ore at a depth of 4 meters, with a gold grade of 2.03 g/mt. Anomalies in base metals, such as zinc (0.334%), copper (0.275%), and lead (over 1%), were also encountered. It is not surprising to encounter gold and base metals in the northern region, but the high-grade gold is somewhat unexpected. The variability in silver content in the samples reflects the variability characteristics of silver mineralization. The Elizabeth Hill silver-polymetallic mine produced 1.2 million ounces of silver over approximately one year. In 2000, the mine was closed due to factors such as low silver prices ($5/ounce). The Elizabeth Hill deposit is renowned for its pod-shaped ore bodies. The "Karratha Queen" silver nugget, weighing 140 kg (4,938 ounces), was discovered there. This nugget is the largest silver nugget ever mined in Australia and one of the largest in the world. In comparison, the world's largest silver nugget, weighing 1,051 kg (37,426 ounces), was discovered in the 1890s at the Smugglers mine in Colorado.