dont forget the historical perspective -iron was o

dont forget the historical perspective -iron was only 10-14/ton til 2002, 45 in 2008

thus the chart of junior miners I've posted-now ca 3 years old- showed average production cost of ca 12-13/ton-w some having negative cost of pro due to premium ore-juniors have much less overhead and dont spend billions on railroads

CWRN- at least under Bob-has been a low cost of pro affair-under 10/ton -highest cost is shipping,which is why they've evolved to Panamax where possible w an expected ship cost of 16/ton-add trucking of 9/ton and total costs w 2 royalty except for incidentals is 32/ton so thats still a large profit-even w incidentals to maybe 45

and if they find a fertilizer processor and sell the "waste" byproduct of fert they will have a negative cost of pro

some big boys went absolutely wild w marginal costs- including CLF and Fortescue of ca 120 when iron went to 192 in feb 2011 (thus Fortescue complained mightily when Australia created a 30% export tax May 2012) and several posted sources have given marginal costs of domestic chinese pro of 120-180/ton due to very poor average ca 15% of chinese ore-as low as 4%