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Oil, copper, soybeans and other commodities have garnered much attention, but humble iron ore has benefited most from China’s economic boom of the past quarter-century. It has been an astonishing bonanza: From the late 1990s to early 2024, iron ore prices have risen nearly tenfold, more than any other major commodity; trading volume has tripled; Australian commodity tycoons have become billionaires; mining companies have become, if briefly, Wall Street darlings; and fierce legal battles have been fought for control of the last untapped mineral deposits. And now it is all over: the greatest commodities boom of the 21st century is over. China inflated it—and China has also brought it down.