Australian Mining has reported that Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) has defended the Pilbara iron ore expansion being undertaken by his company.

As quoted in the market news,

The price of iron ore has crashed from highs of $US130 a tonne at the start of last year to around $US50 a tonne this week, with many blaming the record tonnages being shipped by Rio and BHP Billiton.

However, Walsh was unapologetic about his company’s part in the depressed price, and instead said the iron ore market was in a state of transition.

CEO Sam Walsh stated

I know there’s a lot of controversy, I know that there’s a lot of late entries into the market who have taken advantage of higher prices and they’re now feeling the impact of that as prices have come down.

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