Progressing our strategy

Grow production of materials essential for the energy transition 

High-grade iron ore 

• All conditions were satisfied for our investment to develop the Simandou high-grade iron ore deposit in Guinea. We made significant progress on the project in 2024, and are on schedule for first production at the mine gate in 2025

Aluminium 

• We’re installing carbon-free aluminium smelting technology at Arvida, using the first technology licence issued by ELYSIS™
• We acquired Mitsubishi Corporation’s and Sumitomo Chemical Company’s (SCC) stakes in Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL), increasing our interest in BSL to 73.5%
• We acquired SCC’s stake in New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS), increasing our ownership of NZAS to 100%
• We announced a research and development project to extract the critical and strategic mineral gallium from the bauxite processed at our Vaudreuil alumina refinery in Canada
• We entered a partnership agreement with Swedish investment company Vargas, Mitsubishi Corporation and other partners to study a low-carbon aluminium greenfield opportunity in Finland

Copper 

• We continued to ramp up production from the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine in Mongolia, completing 124 drawbells and the underground material handling system, which transported first ore
• We achieved our first underground production at Kennecott in more than 40 years
• We signed a Term Sheet with Sumitomo Metal Mining for a Joint Venture to deliver the Winu copper-gold project, alongside a broader strategic partnership 

Minerals 

• We approved $2.5 billion to expand the Rincon project in Argentina, our first commercial-scale lithium operation, to 60,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year¹
• We entered a definitive agreement to acquire Arcadium Lithium plc, a transaction that, subject to closing, will bring Arcadium’s world-class, complementary lithium business into our portfolio

1 The production target of approximately 53kt of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year for a period of 40 years was previously reported in a release to the ASX dated 4 December 2024 titled “Rincon Project Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves: Table 1”. Rio Tinto confirms that all material assumptions underpinning that production target continue to apply and have not materially changed. Plans are in place to build for a capacity of 60kt of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year with debottlenecking and improvement programs scheduled to unlock this additional throughput. 

Partner to develop products and technologies to decarbonise our value chains

Steel value chain decarbonisation 

• We announced a $143 million investment to develop a pilot plant in Western Australia to further assess the effectiveness of our BioIron™ low-carbon ironmaking process for Pilbara ores
• We entered into the NeoSmelt collaboration with BlueScope, Australia's biggest steelmaker, and BHP to jointly develop Australia's largest electric smelting furnace pilot plant
• We entered into agreements with GravitHy to accelerate their ultra-low carbon Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) project by supplying high-grade iron ore from Iron Ore Company of Canada, and managing the sales and marketing of their HBI production

Shipping decarbonisation 

• We progressed to a 39% reduction in emissions intensity (from 37% at end 2023 relative to the International Maritime Organization’s intensity baseline year 2008)
• We added 4 more LNG Newcastlemax dual-fuelled vessels to our fleet, bringing our current total to 9, capable of delivering a 15% to 20% reduction in CO₂e emissions compared to traditional fuel oil

Aluminium value chain decarbonisation 

• Digestion improvement technology was successfully implemented at one of our bauxite customers’ operations

Procurement 

• We engaged with 50 of our highest-emitting suppliers on emissions reduction, focused on driving supplier accountability for setting and delivering against their decarbonisation targets
• We implemented decarbonisation as evaluation criteria for new sourcing in high-emitting categories