Global mining giant Rio Tinto tripled the profit from its West Australian iron ore business last year, underpinning a strong rise in the group's underlying net profit to US$4.9 billion (A$6.5 billion).
Hamersley Iron nearly tripled its net earnings to US$1.2 billion, helped by an 18 per cent increase in shipments to a record 90 million tonnes.
Rio's 53 per cent-owned subsidiary Robe River also nearly tripled earnings to US$362 million.
The group's Argyle Diamond subsidiary was another strong contributor, with net earnings rising from US$40 million to US$117 million.
Outside of WA, Rio enjoyed much higher profits from its coal and copper mining operations.
Rio Tinto chairman Paul Skinner was understated in saying "2005 was a very good year".
He said the better profit reflected Rio's high quality assets, its investments in increased production, a strong operational performance and high demand in most markets. This has translated to big increases in commodity prices, especially for iron ore and coal.
Chief executive Leigh Clifford said construction of the first phase of the major port and rail infrastructure expansion in the Pilbara was completed on-time and on-budget in 2005.
Rio has already commited to further expansion in the Pilbara and has agreed to invest US$910 million at Argyle.
The group's total capital expenditure was US$2.5 billion in 2005 and Mr Clifford said this was expected to expand further in 2006 and 2007.
One problem area for the group was its HIsmelt subsidiary, which has built an innovative iron making plant at Kwinana.
The 2005 result included a US$19 million loss for HIsmelt due to "scheduled pre-production and marketing costs".
Rio said it would take three years before HIsmelt ramped-up to full production "reflecting the innovative nature of the technology".
