Ship Photos of The Day – Loading Iron Ore at Port Hedland, Australia

REUTERS/David Gray

Ships waiting to be loaded with iron ore are seen at the Fortescue loading dock located at Port Hedland, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia December 3, 2013.

Australian iron ore mining seems immune from the spending crunch afflicting other commodities as a slowdown in Chinese growth cools a decade-long mining boom. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group are bulking up in Western Australia’s iron-rich Pilbara desert as if the mining boom had never ended. A place where capital expenditure is still measured in the billions.

The miners are speeding up transformation of an area the size of Peru into a moonscape of rust-red pits linked via thousands of miles of rail lines to giant iron ore ports perched on the easternmost edge of the Indian Ocean. Pictures taken December 3, 2013.

A train loaded with iron ore can be seen near the Fortescue Solomon iron ore mine located in the Valley of the Kings, around 400 km (248 miles) south of Port Hedland, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia December 2, 2013.