while iron ore deposits were known, like the mount whaleback deposit discovered in 1957 by stan hilditch, it was not until 1960, when the australian government lifted the embargo on iron ore exports that it had put in place because of concerns the mineral was in short supply, that mining began in earnest. up until the mid-1960s, iron ore production in western australia, and australia as a whole, was negligible, in the range of less than 10 million tons a year. by the mid-1970s, this figure had reached 100 million tonnes, with the majority coming from western australia. production slightly declined in the 1980s but it improved in the 1990s, reaching 150 million tonnes for the country by 1997 and 200 million tonnes by 2003.