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CRU: Rio Tinto’s focus poised to change

Written by CRU

August 2, 2024

Long seen as being dominated by iron ore operations in Western Australia, diversified miner Rio Tinto is at an inflection point in its growth, according to CEO Jakob Stausholm, who referred to a step change from its aluminium business and consistent iron ore production at Pilbara.

“We have considerable growth in cash flow from the ramp-up of the underground copper mine at Oyu Tolgoi, and more value to come as our Simandou [iron ore] investment and Rincon lithium project proceed at pace,” he said. They are respectively in Mongolia, Guinea and Argentina.

Referring to aluminium smelters in Australia and New Zealand, he added: “We are also solving some of our most complex challenges through technology and partnerships, such as the renewable power solutions announced for Boyne and NZAS.”

And such is the shift away from a corporate focus on iron ore, Rio Tinto now talks of overall production in copper-equivalent terms. Strausholm said the company is on track to increase that by around 2% this year.

His comments accompanied the Australia-based company posting a net profit of $5.81 billion, up 13.5% year-on-year (y/y), though turnover was little changed at $26.8 billion.

Rio Tinto noted it expects to spend around $1 billion this on closure activities, including the Gove alumina refinery in Australia and at legacy sites.

This article was first published by CRU. To learn more about CRU’s services, visit www.crugroup.com.

CRU

CRU offers unrivaled business intelligence on the global metals, mining, and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy, and events.

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