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Nicholas Grove is a Morningstar journalist.

Global mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO) on Tuesday said its iron ore production for the 2011 full year was up 4 per cent on 2010 to 192 million tonnes (mt).

Production for the fourth quarter to the end of December was up 2 per cent compared to the same quarter in the previous year to 51 mt, the miner said.

In a statement, Rio Tinto said global iron ore shipments for the year reached a record 239 mt, but said this was below production due to extreme weather conditions experienced in the first half of the year.

Despite this, Rio said its ports in Western Australia's Pilbara region operated at above annualised capacity rates and shipped record volumes of 61 mt in the fourth quarter and 225 mt for the full year.

The global shipments of 239 mt were in line with the company's guidance for shipments of around 240 mt in 2011.

"This was another record-breaking year in the Pilbara, with both quarterly and full-year iron ore production and shipments beating previous achievements, as our expansion programme continues apace," Rio chief executive Tom Albanese said.

"Across the group, production has bounced back from the severe weather conditions experienced in the first half, which had the biggest impact on Australian iron ore, coal and uranium."

Rio said lower grades at its Escondida and Kennecott Utah Copper operations drove 2011 production down 23 per cent year on year, in line with guidance.

Full-year bauxite production was 7 per cent higher than 2010. Aluminium was 1 per cent higher, while alumina production was 1 per cent lower, the company said.

Australian hard coking coal production was 2 per cent lower year on year, Australian thermal coal production was 3 per cent lower year on year, while semi-soft coal production fell 7 per cent on 2010, Rio said.

UBS analysts had expected coal production from Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley operations to be impacted by the recent Orica (ORI) ammonia plant outage at Kooragang Island.

"Explosives issues may continue to impact production in the first quarter of 2012 as the supply chain needs to refill following the restart of the Orica plant," they said in a note.

Uranium production from Rio's Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) operation was down 35 per cent on 2010, while production from the Rossing operation in Namibia was 41 per cent lower.