Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Elizabeth Gaines is going out with a bang. With just a month to go before she leaves the top job, Gaines has delivered another quarter of record iron ore production, another annual production record and a third consecutive year of production above guidance.

Gaines says the weather has been kind, but this downplays the job she and her team have done juggling the metaphoric cyclones that have swirled around Fortescue: hard border closures in Western Australia until March, COVID-19 cases and absenteeism, executive changes (including the announcement of her own departure and Andrew Forrest’s return as executive chairman) and inflationary pressures that show no signs of abating.