More iron ore doom from Cliffs Natural Resources boss Laurenco Goncalves – by Colin Kruger (Sydney Morning Herald – March 10, 2016)

http://www.smh.com.au/

It is a pity that Cliffs Natural Resources is a US-based miner, because it is only on his rare visits to our shores that Australia gets to catch the pearls of wisdom that pour forth from its chief executive, Laurenco Goncalves.

This is the guy who said last year that he couldn’t wait to get out of that “doomed” and “cursed” place that is the Australian iron ore market.

“As soon as I get to the end of life of mine in Australia, I’m out of there … I can’t wait to get out of the seaborne trade and let the Australians take that horrible business on their own hands,” he said in May. That sales spiel must go down a treat with the tyre-kickers who might be interested in buying its local mines.

In October, he racheted up the geopolitical arguments as to why Rio and BHP should not be ramping up their ore shipments while demand was stalling.

“I hope the Australians will continue to question themselves why one or two companies are giving their finite resource away to the Chinese while the Chinese builds into a military powerhouse in the South China Sea,” he told analysts in a line that would go down a treat on talkback radio if he’s ever looking for a new career.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.smh.com.au/business/cbd/more-iron-ore-doom-from-cliffs-natural-resources-boss-laurenco-goncalves-20160309-gned6l.html