Australia's Fortescue has 'decades' of iron ore for China

Australia's Fortescue Metals said it has billions of tonnes of iron ore, enough to supply China for decades, reinforcing claims that the country is on the verge of a major commodities boom. Executive director Russell Scrimshaw stated the world's fourth largest iron ore miner had up to 20 billion tonnes of ore, the basic ingredient of steel, which is a key to China's mass industrialisation and urbanisation. He said Fortescue, which is in direct competition with Anglo-Australian giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, has discovered an estimated six billion tonnes in the 10 percent of its vast land-holdings explored so far. Fortescue exported 40 million tonnes of high-quality hematite iron ore to about 50 major Chinese steel mills in 2009, and plans to ramp-up annual production to 150 million tonnes in the next five to 10 years.Nike Air Max 97