With fatherly pride, Andrew Forrest sweeps his arm across the scene at Cloudbreak, a huge iron ore mine set in the landscape of Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The billionaire Australian mining magnate and founder of Fortescue Metals is surveying a scene of frenetic activity. Dozens of trucks are being loaded with the Pilbara’s rich red dirt before a custom-built railway line takes it to the coast hundreds of kilometres away and then on to ships destined for Chinese steelmakers.