The milestone coincided with the Brazilian company’s 70th anniversary last month.

“The volume of iron ore produced by Vale during these seven decades is sufficient to feed more than two years of global crude steel output at the current pace of 1.5 billion tonnes per annum,” Vale said.

“This is a major achievement stemming from a combination of hard work, technological innovation and a generous endowment of natural resources dedicated to supplying the best iron ore in the world to the global steel industry.”

Meanwhile, iron ore production reached a June quarter record of 80.5Mt, jumping 15.1% on the March quarter figures due to poor weather during that period.

The company did not provide any market commentary or guidance in its results.

Pellet production of 14.3Mt was another June quarter record, while metallurgical coal production of 1.3Mt from total coal production of 2.5Mt was a new record.

Nickel and copper production dropped 3.6% and 4.4% respectively due to the safety shutdown at Sudbury in Canada.

Manganese output soared by 20.6% to 584,000t, while potash and phosphate rock production also increased.

This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.