Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs
Our business
We operate in 35 countries where our 57,000 employees are working to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs
Our purpose in action
Continuous improvement and innovation are part of our DNA
Innovation
The need for innovation is greater than ever
We supply the metals and minerals used to help the world grow and decarbonise
Iron Ore
The primary raw material used to make steel, which is strong, long-lasting and cost-efficient
Lithium
The lightest of all metals, it is a key element needed for low-carbon technologies
Copper
Tough but malleable, corrosion-resistant and recyclable, and an excellent conductor of heat and transmitter of electricity
Bringing to market materials critical to urbanisation and the transition to a low-carbon economy
Oyu Tolgoi
One of the most modern, safe and sustainable operations in the world
Rincon Project
A long-life, low-cost and low-carbon lithium source
Simandou Project
The world’s largest untapped high-grade iron ore deposit
Providing materials the world needs in a responsible way
Climate Change
We’re targeting net zero emissions by 2050
Nature solutions
Our nature-based solutions projects complement the work we're doing to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions
Decarbonisation progress update
We have a clear plan on decarbonisation - find out more about our progress
We aim to deliver superior returns to our shareholders while safeguarding the environment and meeting our obligations to wider society
2024 annual results
Released: our 2024 annual results
Get the latest news, stories and updates
Things you can't live without
Our podcast discussing what needs to happen to create a sustainable future for the everyday items we have come to rely on
The 'f' word of innovation
How unlocking innovation requires a change of mindset
Reducing titanium oxide's carbon footprint
Our BlueSmelting technology could drastically reduce carbon emissions during ore processing
Discover more about life at Rio Tinto
Graduates and students
If you want to drive real change, we have just the place to do it
Empowering families with flexibility
Supporting new parents of any gender with equal access to parental leave
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The world needs the copper, aluminium, iron ore, and minerals we provide; our business is evolving in line with this demand, recently with our lithium business and the proposed acquisition of Arcadium. Our robust results and capital discipline demonstrate our ability to grow organically and inorganically, and to diversify and decarbonise our business while creating significant shareholder value. We have a lot of momentum, and I am confident we can deliver further value now and in the long term by following our strategy and continuing to focus on our 4 key objectives: to become Best Operator, striving for impeccable ESG credentials, to excel in development and to deepen our social licence. That said, we are devastated that there were 5 fatalities in the year, a tragic reminder of why a relentless focus on safety is so important in our industry. We are committed to learning from these fatalities to improve our processes everywhere.
As a Board, we have spent a lot of time in 2024 focusing on Rio Tinto’s strategy to ensure we have the right portfolio of commodities, clear milestones for success, and are building capacity to meet the increasing demand. We have seen this in action on many site visits. For example, in March, Ben Wyatt, Dean Dalla Valle and I visited the Simandou project in Guinea and witnessed early construction of the 620-kilometre railway. Less than a year on, we have signed the co-development agreements, crushed the first iron ore, built a 275-metre-long bridge, inaugurated 7 new schools and with a workforce of over 13,000 people, around 81% of whom are Guinean.
As we build, we are working with governments, communities and civil society groups on biodiversity and socioeconomic development. We are certainly not perfect, but we are taking the necessary steps to deepen our social licence. We cannot solve our biggest challenges alone, and it is important that our partnerships are mutually beneficial for all our stakeholders. A positive workplace culture is also key to operational performance. So, while there is still a long way to go, I am encouraged by the progress we are making on our culture change journey.
Rio Tinto is optimistic about the coming year. In 2024, we laid out the pathway to a decade of growth, gained clarity on the portfolio, and ensured we are in excellent financial health even as we execute more projects worldwide than ever before. Even with more global volatility, the underlying drivers of population growth, an expanding global middle class, the push for more localised manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the energy transition continue to underpin demand for what we do."
We are clearly in a time of significant geopolitical volatility with conflict, trade tensions and polarisation at domestic and international levels. There will be further volatility in 2025, but we are working on what is within our control and Rio Tinto is well-positioned to manage risk. I am confident we have the right strategy to meet the many opportunities and navigate the challenges. Because, ultimately, what we do is increasingly in demand and will remain so, despite the hurdles we must deal with along the way, such as slow permitting. Decarbonisation is core to our strategy. We have ambitious targets to reduce our emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, and getting there will be hard. But we have developed a roadmap that should enable us to achieve our targets while reducing energy uncertainty and improving the underlying economics for our assets. Our portfolio of decarbonisation initiatives is focused on value, giving us confidence that our investments here are not only better for the environment, but better for our business for the long term. Considering the complexity of the challenges before us, innovation is becoming an even more important part of our approach across Rio. This is being driven by our Chief Innovation Officer and our strong research and development team, who are testing future technologies and considering how we can scale them competitively.
In 2025, Rio Tinto will continue to focus on building a culture where everyone feels safe, respected and empowered, because that is how an organisation delivers great performance. We will also continue to forge partnerships that enable us to grow and deliver further attractive shareholder returns. We cannot do this alone, and I want to thank every one of our partners, customers, suppliers, investors, governments, communities and Indigenous Peoples who supported us in 2024. Above all, I want to thank our colleagues across the globe who are helping us to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs.
It is in Rio Tinto’s DNA to deliver quality assets of scale, at the lowest part of the cost curve, and to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs. In 2024 we tapped into this DNA to deliver profitable, stable growth and significant shareholder value. We are unfolding the historic strength of Rio Tinto, and this strength is clear in our financial results.
However, we still have much to learn and improve, including on safety. We are heartbroken by the loss of our colleagues in 2024, and deeply committed to learning from every safety event.
We are continuing to align our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, including lithium, a cornerstone mineral of the energy transition. At the Rincon project in Argentina, we went from greenfield to first lithium in only 32 months, and we are now expanding the plant. Along with the proposed acquisition of Arcadium, Rincon shows our commitment to building a world-class battery minerals portfolio.
We are becoming much more skilled as an organisation at executing projects at scale, on time and to budget. Simandou has progressed rapidly and is on track for first production at mine gate in 2025. At Oyu Tolgoi, we delivered first ore on the conveyor to surface in October, and production at the copper mine is expected to grow by more than 50% in 2025. In Canada, we are expanding the use of our low-carbon AP60 aluminium smelting technology. And these global teams of experienced project-building professionals are capturing and embedding their learnings.
We are also determined to realise the full potential of our existing assets, which means accelerating the drive to become Best Operator. We made good progress on this objective in 2024, achieving consistent iron ore production in the Pilbara, and reaching nameplate capacity at the Amrun bauxite mine. Of course, Best Operator is not only about production but also cost competitiveness, and we are becoming more disciplined at managing our costs.
We will move further and faster on this objective in 2025, and seek to stabilise assets such as Iron Ore Company of Canada and Kennecott, which present huge opportunities to unlock value. As we go deeper into our sites with the Safe Production System (SPS), we see how much potential there is across our assets.
Societal factors heavily influence our ability to operate, which is why we are continuing to move the dial on impeccable ESG and our social licence. Decarbonising our business is deeply physical and complex, but we are starting to deliver projects to reduce emissions while retaining value. We can only achieve our ambitious targets by working closely with stakeholders, so I was encouraged by the agreement with the Queensland Government to support Boyne Smelters, and our efforts to secure the long-term future of the Tiwai Point smelter in New Zealand. It is up to others to judge our progress, but I do sense we are becoming a partner of choice globally. We can win more hearts and minds by actioning our purpose, finding better waysTM, that are more sustainable and are mutually beneficial.
Culture is fundamental to how we realise the full value of our assets. The release of the Everyday Respect Progress Review in November was important, helping us understand where we are on our culture change journey. It is unacceptable that colleagues are still experiencing harmful behaviours, but we are encouraged that many believe we are heading in the right direction. We will stay the course, creating a culture where everyone feels safe, respected and empowered.
We have considerable momentum heading into 2025, and all the building blocks for an incredibly strong, diversified and growing business. We will continue taking actions that ensure we remain strong in the short, medium and long term, while paying attractive returns to our shareholders.
We will have a laser focus on unlocking the full potential of our assets as we go deeper with SPS, deliver improved cost management, and learn from executing complex projects. We will improve our culture and safety processes as part of an accelerated drive to become Best Operator. This way, we know we can afford to grow, decarbonise, and build a portfolio of materials the world needs, positioning us to be more competitive as we grow.
2024 was another year of successful execution, with our total copper equivalent production increasing by more than 1% over 2023, on a copper equivalent basis (based on long-term consensus pricing). This reflected the ramp-up of the Oyu Tolgoi underground copper mine and further deployment of our Safe Production System. We have prioritised our Best Operator focus on operations that generate the most cash, with particular success at our Pilbara iron ore business and increased operational stability at our Aluminium operations, including record bauxite production at Amrun and Gove. We remain focused on our cost competitiveness while intensifying efforts to address system bottlenecks and strategic challenges at underperforming assets.
For 2024, we are reporting net cash generated from operating activities of $15.6 billion, underlying earnings of $10.9 billion and profit after tax attributable to owners of Rio Tinto of $11.6 billion.
We ended the year with net debt of $5.5 billion, which is modest relative to recent history. This balance sheet strength enables us to run our business consistently and maintain investment through the cycle, offering resilience and creating optionality, such as our proposed acquisition of Arcadium. We have chosen not to have a net debt target, but have a principles-based approach to anchor the balance sheet around a single A credit rating.
We are intensifying our focus on becoming Best Operator and how we are delivering profitable growth from major projects. We are derisking our assets through disciplined execution of our decarbonisation program, finding ways to lower capital intensity and increase overall returns. These actions are creating significant value, enhancing our cash flows and supporting consistent capital allocation and balance sheet strength.
We will continue to allocate the capital generated by our operations with discipline and remain committed to attractive shareholder returns. We have consistently applied our financial framework, which has been in place for more than a decade. It is straightforward and serves us well, underpinned by our three priorities. Essential capital expenditure remains the first priority - sustaining capex to ensure the integrity of our assets, high-returning replacement projects and investment for decarbonisation. The second priority is the ordinary dividend within our well-established returns policy, where we now have a nine-year track record of paying out consistently at the top end of the policy range at 60% of underlying earnings. The third involves testing investment in compelling growth against debt management and further cash returns to shareholders.
In 2024, our share of capital investment rose to $9.5 billion, driven by increased investment in replacement projects, including Western Range in the Pilbara and AP60 in Quebec, and the accelerating development of the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea. We believe that Simandou's high-grade, high-quality product will position us well for the decarbonisation of the steel industry. It is critical to ensure we have the right, diversified portfolio to keep creating value for decades to come, so we can benefit from increased demand from both traditional sources and from the energy transition. We spent $0.9 billion on exploration and evaluation, with greenfield projects mainly focused on copper and lithium, while evaluation prioritised projects with near-term investment decisions.
We remain very committed to our capital framework including our dividend policy and practice. Our financial strength means that we can reinvest for growth, accelerate our decarbonisation and continue to pay attractive dividends through the cycle. For 2024, we are returning 60% of underlying earnings to shareholders, which equates to a full-year ordinary dividend of 402 US cents per share, or $6.5 billion.
Our existing business is generating strong cash flows, which will be enhanced by the delivery of our growth projects.
Our strategy is about growing in the materials the world needs. This will ensure Rio Tinto remains strong in the short, medium and long term with the ability to invest for the long term while also paying attractive returns.
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As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of our Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
With the exception of the use of cookies (explained below), Rio Tinto generally does not seek to collect personal data through this website. However if you choose to provide personal data to Rio Tinto through this website (for example, by sending us an email), we will process that personal data to answer your query and if relevant, to manage our business relationship with you or your company. We won't process that personal data for other purposes except where required to meet our legal obligations or otherwise as authorised by law and notified to you.
Part 1 of this Privacy Policy contains the Rio Tinto Data Privacy Standard, which provides an overview of Rio Tinto’s approach to personal data processing. There is additional information in the appendices to the Data Privacy Standard, including information about disclosures, trans-border data transfers, the exercise of data subject rights and how to make complaints or obtain further information relating to Rio Tinto’s processing of your personal data.
If you choose to subscribe to our media releases or other communications, you can unsubscribe at any time (by following the instructions in the email or by contacting us at digital.comms@riotinto.com).
With your consent, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
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As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of this Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
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