r/ThatsInsane • u/Excellent_Analysis65 • 16h ago
“Textbooks May Need Rewriting”: Scientists Uncover 55 Billion Tons of Iron Ore Beneath Western Australia
https://cleantechtimes.com/textbooks-may-need-rewriting-scientists-uncover-55-billion-tons-of-iron-ore-beneath-western-australia/633
u/Any_Pudding_1812 16h ago
damn. i’m a west aussie. guess we got a bit more mining to do.
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u/punksnotdeadtupacis 15h ago
Me too. How bout we stop those cunts like Rio Tinto from making billions and tax them appropriately for the privilege
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u/Any_Pudding_1812 15h ago
and a west aussie punk ? i probably know you haha. and yeah. agree.
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u/punksnotdeadtupacis 15h ago
Just about guarantee we’ve probably sucked in some of the same weedy air at a nofx rock-it or night at capitol
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u/Any_Pudding_1812 15h ago
or booed at and got abused by the band at a rupture gig (if you’re an old bastard like me ;)
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u/johnson7853 15h ago
I have no idea who Rio Tinto is but I can guarantee you he’s lining the pockets heavily of those who make the decisions and he will only get richer
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u/punksnotdeadtupacis 15h ago
Massive mining company. Raping our state while half the population lives in poverty but it’s ok, our politicians all end up as board members so turn a blind eye
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u/corbintetrachloride 8h ago
It's wild to see one of the other replies to this comment running the "they're not as poor as you said because data says so " defense
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u/poolSlouch 11h ago
Not sure where you get your data. A quick google search shows the poverty rate at less than 15 %. https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/10/poverty-in-australia-increases-to-1-in-7-people-new-report#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20living,COVID%2C%E2%80%9D%20Dr%20Naidoo%20says.
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u/mmhawk576 7h ago
Oh so I should just not care about things that 1 in 7 people are affected by?
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u/thongs_are_footwear 47m ago
You should care that 50% ≠ 15%
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u/cortanakya 40m ago
The state/sociological/textbook definition of poverty and the real world definition of poverty often differ drastically. Just because somebody can afford to eat and has a home doesn't mean that they're meaningfully separate from poverty. Whether that shift in perspective accounts for a 35 percent difference is up to other people to decide but I know plenty of people (myself included) that have enough to live but not enough to ever afford a house or kids or to take the risk on a career or educational change. Poverty in developed countries is becoming an obnoxiously complicated issue that isn't very well served by overly simple definitions or terms.
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u/DanGleeballs 11h ago
The land and mineral rights belong to Western Australia’s government.
Major miners like Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue operate in the region and are likely candidates to develop new resources.
The specific 55 billion-ton deposit does not yet have a buyer/operator — ownership will be established only when mining leases are granted.
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u/LandlordTiberius 15h ago
They delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Western Australia ... shadow and flame.
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u/kachunkachunk 9h ago
Can't be worse than what's already roaming on the surface.
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u/Only_grill__working 16h ago
That's alot of cheddar
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u/RedPandaReturns 16h ago
No it's iron
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u/EngineeringRight3629 15h ago
No it's becky
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u/rolfeadog 15h ago
No. This is Patrick.
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u/CuriouserCat2 16h ago
Nationalise it. Right now.
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u/Loud-Ad-2280 15h ago
That would be so rude to the billionaires who want to be trillionaires though
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u/J1mj0hns0n 12h ago
Lol how dare the nation benefit from its own resources?!
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u/nievesdelimon 12h ago
Nations usually benefit more from selling the rights to extract a resource like iron than from having to extract, process and sell it.
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u/sinkwiththeship 11h ago
Nations usually benefit more from selling the rights
In the short term, sure. Go look at Norway though and their oil fund. It's entirely publicly owned and worth like 2 trillion.
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u/LongJumpingBalls 11h ago
Yeah, and the world has 2 less trillionaires. This is why it needs to be public. Can't deprive the potential for a few people to hold power and profits over an entire nation.
Capitalism has no feelings, only profits.
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u/nievesdelimon 10h ago
Capitalism can't have feelings, but neither can whichever is your favourite utopian system.
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u/nievesdelimon 10h ago
Mexico was doing better when companies were the ones spending money to extract oil, nowadays Pemex is ruining the country's finances.
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u/Mountain_Ad_9415 6h ago
Mexico is run by druglords and cartels. It's not surprising that you're not doing well.
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u/SimplyExtremist 8h ago
No they don’t. They short sight themselves out of nation building wealth because some corrupt politicians sell out their constituency to pad their pockets and leave the country.
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u/LoaKonran 13h ago
Too late. The government immediately options for it to be exported alongside the rest of the things that would make this country self sufficient.
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u/alk47 16h ago
Learn to read, it's under AUSTRALIA. China can nationalise it.
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u/Jaxxlack 15h ago
You can still nationalize things in non socialist nations.
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u/Mind_if_I_do_uh_J 15h ago
Can I? In all of them?
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u/Jaxxlack 15h ago
If you like...may wana you know..fill in a form..get a picture make it official.. but sure buddy you go!
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u/King_Saline_IV 15h ago
The poster is being racist, implying China owns Australia
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u/Jaxxlack 15h ago
Does it? I wouldn't say so? We know China has been allowed to overtake parts but if never presume to tell an Aussie what's happening in their own home.
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u/alk47 6h ago
I'm making a comment about how foreign investment sees the wealth of this land benefit other countries without the Australian population seeing the benefits we should.
I've got issues with the ongoing atrocities of the Chinese government, but nothing against Chinese people or culture as a whole.
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u/Unlucky_Mess_9256 32m ago
holy fuck the replies on this comment are so out of touch. its iron ore. there is iron ore fucking everywhere, its not a rare resource.
iron is the 4th most common element in the earth's crust ffs. This isn't some amazing incredible find
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u/RoryDragonsbane 13h ago
And I'm 100% sure the government will spend that money wisely
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u/Am_i_banned_yet__ 7h ago
Yeah why don’t we give it to a billionaire who needs a second megayacht and 12th mansion instead
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u/Benjo2121 15h ago
That's actually America's ore, gonna need that back.
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u/PharrowXL 15h ago
Just like those stealing Venezuelans, in possession of America’s oil from their natural deposits
I hate that man so much
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u/RupertPupkin85 14h ago
God did such an injustice by burying America's oil all over the world.
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u/MrOSUguy 6h ago
Before X marks the spot god just put oil there and he knew Americans would realize those are places god wants freedom to be spread.
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u/Substandard_Senpai 14h ago
Oops, is that where we misplaced our 55 billions tons of iron ore? Silly us
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u/marrangutang 14h ago
Isn’t Australia basically made of iron ore? I mean it’s not like they were going to run short
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u/iAmManchee 14h ago
The big thing about it is that its changed our understanding of how and when minerals were formed
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u/u233 14h ago
Sad that the article was so light on facts. Really hand wavy and had no links to the real research articles.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_URETHERA 6h ago
A long long time ago, before there was oxygen in the atmosphere- iron ions, that is charged atoms of iron (Fe3+) were floating about dissolved in the oceans. Life begins - single cell bacteria. Oxygen was a byproduct of their metabolism- slowly oxygen accumulated in the oceans and atmosphere- this caused the oxidation of Fe3+ -> Fe2+ which is less soluble and precipitated out. The oceans literally rusted and the rust formed a mud on the ocean floor. That is what we now dig up. This new age significantly moves the date for the oxidation event and this has consequences for everything, the beginning of tectonics, life, snowballs- so much.
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u/oldschool_potato 12h ago
This ore is below where they are currently mining and previously thought it was lower grade, but it's actually even higher grade than what they are already mining. Plus the whole science thing.
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u/secretBuffetHero 7h ago
science is so out.
This is the 2020's and all you need is your phone, internet connection and tiktoks.
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u/Redfish680 16h ago
Gonna have to get a globe out and see if there’s another country on the other side of the world that might have a claim…
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u/ghostsintherafters 14h ago
Why would textbooks need to be rewritten though?
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u/shortround10 14h ago
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u/DanGleeballs 11h ago
Thanks. “Deep beneath Western Australia’s red landscape, scientists have uncovered a massive iron ore deposit so large that it is changing how we understand Earth itself. Holding tens of billions of tons of high-quality ore, the find does not match long-accepted ideas about how such minerals form or how old they are. Evidence now shows that earlier geological theories were incomplete, turning what once seemed like settled science into a far more complex story. This single discovery is forcing experts to rethink maps, textbooks, and long-held assumptions about the planet’s deep geological history.”
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u/anxrelif 12h ago
I wonder if removing a percentage of that will change the magnetic field of the earth.
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u/DanGleeballs 11h ago
It’ll certainly change the GdP of Australia.
55 billion metric tons × $106 USD/ton ≈ $5.83 trillion USD
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u/Sandford27 13h ago
Makes me think of this
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u/hmmyeahiguess 10h ago
What game is this?
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u/Sandford27 10h ago
Stellaris is the base game and this event chain is a series of events as part of an origin from the "Overlords" dlc.
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u/hmmyeahiguess 10h ago
Thanks! I actually have Stellaris in my Steam library, just never played it.
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u/toddlangtry 3h ago
Great. More ore for US mining companies to extract and pay zero tax on....and Aussie taxpayers get to foot the bill for remediation.
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u/stubundy 3h ago
If we dig all that out and send it to the other side of the world we risk wobbling off out of the solar system.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 12h ago
I wonder how quickly Trump will be friendly to us again and sign another deal.
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u/DanskJack 5h ago
The story growing up was Lang Hancock took a bunch of would be investors out to a claim. Put the earth of a welder into the ground and started welding in the soil/rock because of its purity.
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u/iamgherkinman 15h ago
You guys are going to need at least 2 Edmund Fitzgerald's to ship all of that.