Word: hedland
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...shares. Their hardest job has been to get the ore out from the Mount Newman area, which is 780 miles by road from the nearest large city, Perth. In just 14 months, U.S. and Canadian companies laid down 265 miles of railroad track to connect the site with Port Hedland, which until the iron boom had been a decaying northwestern port on waters swarming with deadly stonefish, sea snakes and sharks. When a despondent prospector blew himself up on the front porch of the Esplanade Hotel a decade ago, he disturbed only half a dozen people...
...Port Hedland today has a population of 5,000, new schools, motels, a drive-in cinema and facilities to handle the mile-long trains that chug in from the mines. It also has an air of rough and easy freedom that is attractive to the miners after the tight discipline of Mount Newman and other camps...
...first shipments of ore from Por1 Hedland went to Japan, which will be Mount Newman's biggest customer. The Japanese have contracted for 146 million tons, worth $1.2 billion, over the next 15 years. European steel mills have agreed to buy 1.5 million tons by 1989, while 70 million tons will go to Australian mills. Australian steelmen are also considering building enormous integrated mills that would be fed by Mount Newman and other western iron mines. When that happens, proud Australia will indeed be master of her vast iron reserves...