Last century, Americans company were coming in Canada, pumping iron and buying mining companies for cheap. With the same iron, they shipped it back into the US, made steel with it and sold it back to us at like 5x times the original price. I know "capitalist/freedom/etc", but this type of business doesn't create any plus-value.
That's a rather ignorant statement on your part. No added value? Try building something out of iron ore. As it comes out of the ground, it's rather useless. Refining ore into steel is an energy-intensive process. Try telling me with a straight face that there's no value in that.