Employee looking up at machinery

Pioneer Portal

Partner with us

We want your innovative ideas and solutions to some of our current business challenges. Whether you’re a start-up entrepreneur or an existing business, with small-scale ideas or proven solutions and technology. We know that we’re stronger when we work together.

This platform allows you to be heard and potentially deliver real value to our business.

Open business challenges

Tailings Technologies Open Call

We have formed a Tailings Consortium with BHP to develop solutions to improve tailings dewatering and management. Together we have launched the Tailings Technologies Open Call to identify and accelerate the market availability of innovative, holistic, and economically sustainable technologies to improve the dewatering, transportation, monitoring and stacking of mine tailings, and reduce potential safety risks associated with tailings facilities.

Do you have an idea or technology that could transform the mining industry?

We are seeking out original ideas, from the unproven to those ready to deploy. Your idea should address a collaboration opportunity relevant to our business. In turn, we may support you with funding, laboratory and research space, professional coaching, access to operations, or if it is a product purchase.

Process

Here’s what will happen once you submit your idea:

  • You will receive an email confirmation acknowledging receipt
  • Your idea is posted onto our internal social networking platform for open review and further reviewed by our expert panel (who reviews submissions monthly)
  • You will receive an email with an update or decision
  • If we choose to proceed further with your idea, we will assign you a key contact to progress

This process can take up to 2 months.

What you'll need to provide

Whether you are providing a solution for one of our current business challenges or sharing your own technology, here is what you will need to provide when submitting your idea:

  • Pitch details
  • Value proposition
  • Business uses
  • Status
  • Expectations
  • Supporting documents

Portal Submissions Guide

Portal Submissions Guide
PDF
235 KB
  • About your submission
  • Disclaimer

Our past successes

Resolution, US

Keeping cool 2km underground

Resolution Copper Project, Arizona, US

It’s almost 2 kilometres to the bottom of Resolution Copper’s mine shafts. At these depths, temperatures can reach around 80°C.

More

Working in these temperatures requires continuous cooling supplied through huge ventilation systems – and these giant air conditioners require a lot of electricity to run. To help reduce carbon emissions, the Resolution Copper team sought a solution to capture and use the energy created by latent heat sources like underground water.

More than 20 companies contributed a range of possible solutions, ranging from early-stage developments to off-the-shelf products. These included absorption coolers, which use heat from air and water to produce cool air – like a refrigerator; using geothermal heat to create electricity to run the air conditioners; and converting solar energy from the surface to power the air conditioners below the ground.

The Resolution Copper project is now working with 2 companies to further investigate possible solutions. Our Energy and Climate Change teams are looking at how other proposed solutions could be used more broadly across Rio Tinto.

Extending the life of carbon anodes

Bell Bay Aluminium, Tasmania, Australia

Aluminium is made using a process where carbon anodes create a chemical reaction, changing alumina into the shiny, lightweight metal used in everything from food packaging to cars. Through the smelting process, the carbon anodes are consumed.

Anode
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For many years our Bell Bay aluminium operation has been pioneering a coating for carbon anodes to help reduce consumption, and therefore waste. Through the Pioneer Portal, the team sought a world-first solution to automatically apply their protective coating on baked carbon anodes.

Companies offered solutions ranging from immersion to spraying. The Bell Bay team is now working with a company to introduce robotic manufacturing technologies – like those used in the automotive industry – to apply the protective coating on their anodes.

Frequently asked questions

  • How do I submit my innovation for consideration by Rio Tinto?
  • What kind of information does Rio Tinto need in your submission?
  • My innovation is neither patented nor patent-pending. May I still submit?
  • Will Rio Tinto sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before I share my innovation?
  • How can I arrange to present my innovation in person?
  • Who will review my submission and how long will the review take? 

  • If Rio Tinto is interested in my submission, how much will I be paid for it?
  • What type of business relationship with Rio Tinto could result from my submission?
  • For what reasons might Rio Tinto decline to pursue my submission?
  • What does Rio Tinto do with personal information that I provide with my open innovation portal registration? 

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