Sustainability reporting

Occupational health:

We aim to ensure everyone goes home safe and healthy every day. In 2024, we recorded 147 new occupational health illnesses (2023: 103), reflecting our increased focus on identifying, investigating and preventing health conditions arising directly from work. Many occupational illnesses develop over a long and continuous period, requiring sustained efforts to reduce exposure reduction over time. 

In 2024 we: 

• Completed occupational and industrial hygiene monitoring at our operational and managed assets, assessing noise, airborne particulates, gas and other contaminants. These insights provide valuable insights into our exposure profile and help us to prioritise actions to ensure effective controls are in place.
• Redesigned fit-for-purpose medical assessments at our Australia-based operations, with a plan to expand to our assets across the rest of the world in 2025. 
• Continued to standardise how occupational health and hygiene data is digitally collected and accessed, transitioning from manual to more secure and streamlined digital collection processes that deliver improved risks and trends insights to support our health management initiatives.
• Implemented 7 projects at 6 assets to successfully reduce exposures to known health risks for our employees and contractors. 

Mental health and wellbeing:

Mental health is a core part of our health and safety culture, with a responsibility to support all aspects of our people’s wellbeing. We pay particular attention to creating a psychologically healthy and safe work environment, while providing support to our people for their mental health needs, wherever they may arise. 

In 2024 we: 

• Conducted an increasing number of psychosocial risk assessments and provided leader training to better address psychosocial hazards in the workplace and improve the experience of work for our people.
• Supported the principles of good work for worker wellbeing through our People Experience programs, such as improving inclusion and diversity, providing fair pay and flexible work, consulting and communicating with our people, and supporting career progression and job adjustments over the employee lifecycle. 
• Used insights from our twice-yearly People Survey to inform our approach to mental health. 
• Furthered our efforts to develop a psychologically healthy and safe workplace by designing our facilities, teams and culture to eliminate psychosocial risk, and raising awareness and delivering training to our leaders to help them recognise and support people experiencing mental ill-health.
• Provided employees with tools and skills to support their mental health, such as our global Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and our global Peer Support Program, where 100% of our 1,650 peer supporters are trained in mental health support. We also continued to offer domestic violence support programs to all employees.
• Raised awareness of mental health in the workplace through global campaigns such as World Mental Health Day and our company-wide Mental Health Week, which included a program of activities, wellbeing resources and an external video series.
• Continued several partnerships with mental health organisations, including Lifeline Australia, a new 5-year partnership with Western Australiabased Telethon, and our continuing support for the Fondation Jeunes en Tête in Quebec over the last 29 years. 
• Maintained our Tier 2 rating in the 2024 CCLA Corporate Mental Health Benchmark Global 100+, ranking as the 4th top improver in the last 3 years (out of 100). 
• Contributed to industry-wide improvements of psychosocial risk management as an active member of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) Psychosocial Risk Management Working Group, and through our participation in the ICMM Psychosocial Risk and Worker Wellbeing Management Working Group, which is helping to build a standard for our industry and shape a new definition of psychological health.

It is with deep sadness that we reflect on the tragic fatal events at our managed operations in 2024. 

On 23 January, a plane crashed shortly after takeoff near Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada, resulting in the loss of 6 of the 7 people on board, including 4 Diavik team members and 2 airline crew members. We remember our colleagues who lost their lives - Diane Balsillie, Howard (Howie) Benwell, Joel Tetso, and Shawn Krawec. Another member of our Diavik team survived, was treated in hospital and subsequently released. 

The Transport Safety Board of Canada continues to investigate this tragic event, with the investigation expected to be completed in 2025.

Following this event, we assessed our aviation management approach across the Group to maintain clear oversight and ongoing management of aviation risks across our operations and projects. 

On 26 October, Morlaye Camara, an employee of one of our contractors, was injured at the SimFer Port Project in Morebaya, part of the Simandou project, and subsequently passed away from his injuries. Following a thorough review to understand the circumstances that led to the event, we have shared the lessons learned with our leaders and partners, encouraging them to reflect on how these relate to their teams and workplaces, and act upon what we have learned. 

We are also saddened by serious safety events reported across our industry more broadly, including 2 fatal events at our non-managed operations. 

Additionally, we remain concerned for Gel Aguaviva, a crew member aboard our bulk carrier RTM Zheng He, managed by Anglo Eastern, who was reported missing on 26 December. A search and rescue operation led by the Philippine Coast Guard is ongoing. 

We care deeply about the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in our business, and these tragedies highlight the ongoing need to prioritise these aspects every shift, every day. 

Guided by our firm belief that all fatalities are preventable, we are committed to applying the lessons learned across our business to continuously improve our practices and prevent similar future events. This includes focusing on identifying, managing and, where possible, eliminating risks so everyone goes home safely.

We also recognise cultural and operational contexts vary across the regions where we operate, and fostering a strong safety culture is a commitment we share with our partners. In 2024, we internally shared lessons from past fatal event investigations conducted by our non-managed operation partners, as we believe two-way sharing and learning is key to supporting our collective safety maturity journey. We also continue to work together to prioritise health and safety in ways that resonate locally and uphold our standards globally. 

Listening to our people

In 2024, we held 2 People Surveys to gain insights from the voices of our employees across the company to better understand the steps we can all take to make Rio Tinto a better place to work. 

We heard from more than 41,000 employees in our fourth quarter People Survey, who shared over 100,000 comments. Our employee satisfaction score (eSAT) was 74 and our Recommend Rio score 72, both consistent with the 2023 score. The second highest score (77) was in response to “I am treated with respect at work”, and “I feel safe at work” had the highest score (78). From the feedback, we recognise we can improve the way we take meaningful action as a result of the survey (58) and how people collaborate to get things done (62). 

We have an expectation that every leader will review the results and discuss them with their teams, and generate an action plan to create improvements. This year we introduced a new culture metric as part of our Group performance scorecard. Using our People Survey results, we are tracking an average over time of all questions to target and improve the overall experience for everyone working at Rio Tinto.

In April, 2 years after publishing the Everyday Respect Report, we launched a Progress Review, conducted again independently by Elizabeth Broderick & Co. (EB&Co.). More than 10,050 individuals completed the survey, 1,318 participated in virtual and in-person listening sessions and 342 submitted confidential written contributions.

On 20 November, we published the findings of the Everyday Respect Progress Review. Change is happening and we are making progress. However, people are still experiencing behaviours and attitudes in our company that are unacceptable and harmful. We are greatly troubled by this and sincerely apologise to anyone affected. Safety, both physical and psychological, remains our number one priority and supporting our people when harm happens always comes first. And there is still more to do. We must continue to focus on ensuring that the workplace experience reflects our values consistently. 

The survey data in the Progress Review was an important temperature check for us. Nearly half of survey respondents reported an improvement in relation to bullying, sexual harassment and racism, with a majority of employees expressing confidence that Rio Tinto will make a meaningful difference in these areas in coming years. 

Achieving the sustained change, we want to see in our workplace will require ongoing focus and effort from everyone at Rio Tinto. We remain committed to cultural transformation and will accelerate our efforts. To be successful, we must take the time to listen to everyone in Rio Tinto and understand all perspectives. Our efforts will be focused on increasing our opportunities to listen to understand and ensure our workplaces support everyone.

Building respect

More than 99% of our leaders have completed the “Building Everyday Respect” training, along with 97.4% of employees globally, strengthening everyone’s understanding of what good looks like and how to be an upstander. 

We’re committed to ensuring our workforce reflects the communities where we operate and offering a workplace that is inclusive of everyone, everywhere. 

In 2024, we set a target on our Group scorecard to continue to build women’s representation. Our target was 25.8% of our workforce, and we achieved 25.2%. We were pleased to see senior leaders increase from 30.1% to 32.0% and operations and general support from 17.7% to 18.9%. We are not satisfied with this result and remain committed to increase the representation of women in our workplace. 

We’re making progress on our ambition to increase representation of ethnic minorities in our global senior leadership population (Executive Committee direct reports) to 18% by 2027. We currently have 14.3%, which represents a small increase from our baseline. Aligned to the requirement of the Parker Review¹ we have also set a target of 17% representation of ethnic minorities in our UK-based senior management population by end 2027. We monitor the diversity of succession plans for all senior roles and ask that our executive search partners provide diverse candidate slates. The introduction of Workday this year will help us gain a more complete global data set, enabling us to more accurately monitor progress on increasing representation. Inclusive Voices, our Global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) communities, was launched to elevate the voices of underrepresented groups and allies, and address barriers to diversity. These ERGs are employee-led and ExCo-sponsored, kicking off with LGBTQ+ Voices, Gender Equal Voices and Neurodiverse Voices, joining the Elevating Voices Network in Australia, established in late 2023. We recently announced champions for 4 new Inclusive Voices ERGs that will launch in quarter one 2025 to improve the experiences of our people with disabilities and amplify our cultural diversity.

¹A UK business-led and Government-backed review that has established targets relating to the number of directors, and required companies to set a target relating to the number of senior management, who identify as minority ethnic in UK-listed companies.

Developing our talent

This year we launched a new talent framework, Career Conversations, to give our people greater agency in their future careers and development. It centres around our people, their values-based performance, motivations and experiences, supporting them to plan their career and development in collaboration with their leader. Launched to senior leaders in 2024, Career Conversations will be rolled out more broadly across the organisation in 2025 and 2026. 

We continued our commitment to support individuals at the start of their career with 235 graduates and 280 interns joining the organisation in 2024. Our graduate program provides stretching development opportunities, including our Innovation Challenge, and enables interns to build business skills and experience while studying. This year we launched a new development curriculum, recognising the different learning preferences for these graduates. Grad Tok uses technology, video and digital resources to provide development resources in short, easily digestible formats that can be accessed as needed as part of a curated learning journey. 

In 2024, 6,084 new hires joined the business, of which 1,821 were contractors becoming permanent employees (2023: 9,166 new hires of which 2,718 were contractors). 

To best equip our most senior cohort to lead culture change, we have now had over 3-quarters of the senior leadership group (77%) complete the Voyager program. This program encourages leaders to reflect deeply, role model psychological safety, understand empathy and build connection to lead in a complex environment. More than 960 (963) have maintained a sustained focus on the importance of coaching, with a further 523 leaders completing our Leader as Coach program which supports our Safe Production System roll out. 

To support our frontline leaders, this year we launched Leadership Fundamentals, designed to build core leadership skills, with individual modules focused on key areas such as how to build a team and how to create a safe environment. We have maintained a sustained focus on the importance of coaching, with a further 523 leaders completing our Leader as Coach program which supports our Safe Production System roll out. 

Equality through pay equity 

Ensuring that employees with similar skills, knowledge, qualifications, experience and performance are paid equally for the same or comparable work is intrinsically linked to our commitment to inclusion and diversity. 

We remain committed to eliminating any residual pay inequities based on gender or other non-legitimate dimensions of difference. 

Our equal pay gap, the primary lens we use when assessing gender pay, measures the extent to which women and men employed by our company in the same location, and performing work of equal value, receive the same pay. Our 2024 equal pay gap was less than 1.5% in favour of men. 

Our gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between the average earnings of women and men across the Group (excluding incentive pay), regardless of role, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. Our 2024 gender pay gap was less than 1% in favour of women.

We continue to strengthen our social performance capacity and capability to become a better operator and partner. In 2024, our CSP practitioners continued to increase their knowledge through online and face to face learning and knowledge sharing. It is essential that we listen to, and act on, the views of communities that host our operations. In 2024, together with Voconiq, a third-party engagement science research company, we launched our global Community Perception Monitoring program, Local Voices. The program will help us to engage more effectively and better understand communities’ perceptions, leading to improved data-driven decisions 

CSP targets: In 2024, we progressed initiatives towards our 2026 CSP targets. We also extended those targets for one year, to conclude in 2027, to accommodate Group-wide productivity and culture initiatives. We launched our Human Rights in Action learning program for employees in higher-risk human rights roles, with an 85% completion rate. We continued to implement management frameworks for cultural heritage management and strategic social investment partnerships, and to increase Indigenous leadership in Australia. 

Social investment: We partner with host communities to deliver positive and lasting outcomes. Engaging local services, employing local people, buying local products and investing in thriving regional economies creates real value for host communities and our business. In 2024, our total voluntary global social investment was $95.9 million, covering a wide range of social and economic programs. Our goal for social investment is to contribute to strong and resilient communities in thriving regional economies. We are doing this by applying a more strategic approach to how we partner with communities so we can deliver the outcomes that are important to them. 

QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), Madagascar: In 2023, QMM increased its community commitment to $4 million per year over 25 years, with half to be spent locally and half in the region. This was part of the fiscal agreement between the Government of Madagascar and Rio Tinto announced in August 2023. In September 2024, following several community engagements, the list of projects was submitted to the representatives of the Government of Madagascar and approved by the Council of Ministers. In 2024, QMM completed the regional rollout of backpacks for children in the District of Fort-Dauphin. A total of 38 primary schools, with more than 11,000 children, benefited from these critical school supplies. QMM also supported the community health mission of the NGO Médecins de l'Océan Indien (MOI), an initiative that aims to facilitate free access to essential medical care for more than 19,000 patients in Fort-Dauphin and the surrounding area. In April 2024, Rio Tinto plc received a “letter of claim” from UK law firm Leigh Day representing 64 individuals living in the Mandena region of Madagascar where QMM operates. We are taking the letter seriously. Although we cannot comment on the letter itself given the initiation of a legal process, QMM’s published independent studies on water quality and radiation within the community, taken over the last 3 years, do not support the allegations raised in the letter. 

Resolution Copper project, Arizona, US: At our Resolution Copper project, we remain committed to preserving Native American and local cultural heritage while delivering long-term benefits to the region. In 2024, we continued building relationships with Native American Tribes and local communities, strengthening partnerships focused on cultural preservation, youth recreation, and economic development. We also advanced and signed the Good Neighbor Agreement with the Town of Superior, local communities and stakeholders from the Pinal and Gila counties to support a lasting, collaborative relationship. 

Simandou project, Guinea: We’re committed to delivering significant and tangible economic and social benefits to the local communities surrounding the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea. We continue to work closely with community representatives to understand their priorities and concerns, and to design and deliver social investment programs that contribute to improving living conditions. Earlier this year, we reached an important milestone with the approval of SimFer’s Land Acquisition and Resettlement Framework and the associated site-specific Resettlement and Compensation Action Plans. This framework covers our operations on the mine, the rail spur and port, and has been developed following extensive consultation with impacted communities and the Government of Guinea. We have ensured that our plans benefit from their knowledge and experience and that all possible steps are being taken to minimise disruption, provide appropriate compensation, and restore the livelihoods of the people and communities affected. We recognise our ability to positively contribute to Guinea's long-term social and economic development beyond the immediate impact of our operations. Our dedicated social and regional economic development programs focus on partnering to build essential capacity, including in health and education, and to foster strong economic linkages and a more resilient, diversified economy. We are also contributing to important infrastructure such as the development of the Conakry Urban Park. Together with all our partners, we are committed to developing the Simandou project in line both with national regulations and internationally recognised environmental, social and governance standards. 

Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia: At Oyu Tolgoi, we are working in partnership with communities and government, contributing to sustainable social and economic change through long-term strategic partnerships. Since 2015, we have invested $52 million to the Gobi Oyu Development Support Fund (DSF) for long-term sustainable development in Umnugovi aimag and partner soums. In 2024, the fund provided $6.4 million towards a waste recycling facility; a heating sub-station; the extension of sewage pipelines; improved medical and educational services and a cultural heritage preservation initiative. In 2023, Oyu Tolgoi committed $50 million over 5 years to support the Khanbogd soum town development by 2040. In 2024, the renovation of the Galba park was completed as well as a 7.16km road construction project in the town centre. Other projects began, including a recreational sports complex, and education, health and business development initiatives. Oyu Tolgoi works in partnership with the Khanbogd soum administration and the herder community as part of The Tripartite Council. In 2024, there was significant progress in delivering community projects relating to sustainable herder livelihoods, student scholarships, and pastureland water access. In late 2023, Rio Tinto and UNESCO established a long-term partnership to foster sustainable development initiatives in Mongolia. In 2024, the first joint initiative started which focuses on preserving Mongolia’s unique cultural heritage and paleontological sites, empowering local communities and creating responsible tourism practices. 

Panguna mine, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea: The Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment (PMLIA) was published in December 2024. The independent report assesses the environmental impacts and directly connected social and human rights impacts caused by the Panguna mine since Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) ceased operations in 1989. Conducted by independent consultants Tetra Tech Coffey over the past 2 years, the entire PMLIA process was overseen by the Oversight Committee which is made up of representatives from the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), landowner and community representatives, BCL, Rio Tinto and the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC). We welcomed the release of the PMLIA as a critical step forward in building understanding of the long-term legacy impacts of BCL’s former mine in Bougainville. In November 2024, Rio Tinto, BCL and ABG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to discuss ways forward. The MoU parties plan to address the PMLIA findings and develop a remedy mechanism consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Rio Tinto has acknowledged a class action lawsuit filed in July 2024 in Papua New Guinea's National Court of Justice, naming both Rio Tinto and its former subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) as defendants. On 20 September 2024, Rio Tinto submitted its defence against the legal claim. The company will strongly defend its position in this case. 

Rincon Lithium Project, Argentina: In 2024, the Rincon project remained committed to responsible mining and community engagement. We are working together with the local communities, listening to their needs and aspirations and ensuring their voices are heard in decisions that affect them. Our support for community development initiatives includes: 

• supporting higher education scholarships through a partnership with Fundación Anpuy and UCASAL University and other institutions 
• initiating an urban forestry project, donating 60 trees and protective planters crafted by local people using repurposed pallet wood from the project’s waste 
• supporting employability through training 67 individuals for operator and laboratory positions.

These programs help ensure we are contributing to a sustainable and long-term positive impact for the region. 

China partnerships: We extended our partnership with the China Development Research Foundation for the next 3 years, supporting rural revitalisation in Bijie, Guizhou Province, through early childhood development, renewable energy utilisation and cultural heritage preservation. We continued supporting Daying Qijiang Foreign Language School in Sichuan Province, a partnership since 2008, and strengthened our partnerships with a number of leading Chinese universities to explore innovative solutions to climate change and environmental challenges. 

The materials we produce and the way we provide them to society matter. We have ambitious emissions reduction targets and are now delivering against those. 

Read our 2025 Climate Action Plan to see how we’re delivering on our goals to: 

• grow production of materials essential for the energy transition
• reduce emissions from our own operations
• partner to decarbonise our value chains. 

Year in review

In 2024, we rehabilitated 37 km² of land, mostly at our bauxite mines in Australia and iron ore mines and exploration areas in the Pilbara, Western Australia. We also developed a geospatial dashboard for internal use that displays each asset’s disturbance and rehabilitation footprint, to help our business better understand the impacts of our land stewardship performance.

In Mongolia, we have rehabilitated 2.1km² of abandoned mine workings based outside our operational footprint, along valley floors and river beds in the Darkhan-Uul province. This is part of Oyu Tolgoi’s commitment to the Government of Mongolia’s national movement to plant one billion trees by 2030.  

We built and transitioned to the community 2 tree nurseries in the South Gobi, with a capacity to produce 750,000 saplings a year. We planted 1 million trees and distributed 80,000 trees to Oyu Tolgoi’s employees, and provided 4 scholarships to students to study forestry.  

In 2024, our land footprint - total disturbed area - was 1,762km², a decrease of 51km² compared to 2023. This includes all disturbances at our operating assets and activities, such as exploration activities, smelters, mines and supporting infrastructure.  

Our rehabilitation teams continue to partner with research centres and universities to refine our rehabilitation approaches and improve outcomes. At our bauxite mines and refineries, we have continued trials focusing on transforming stored tailing material into soils that will support plant growth. We also continued trials using satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle-derived data to test methodologies aimed at providing insights to support on-ground monitoring for vegetation and erosion monitoring of rehabilitation. In addition, 13 of our operations completed rehabilitation trials to improve seed germination, erosion and topsoil quality.   

Our water balance: Our Group water balance outlines where water was withdrawn from, discharged to, recycled or reused and consumed at our operations. The reported categories correlate with the requirements of ICMM and the GRI. We also report on our aggregated water balance for sites in water-stressed areas. We assess water stress using the WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas mapping tool.

Year in review

Waste and residues from our operational activities are key areas of our environmental risk management. In 2024, we continued to focus on managing potential contamination from these sources.  

At some of our long-life assets, we continue to evaluate waste management practices of the past that have led to a need for remediation in the present. We focus on finding better ways™ to extract maximum value and to transform waste and by-products from our operations into materials the world needs. One example is our work to sustainably extract and produce high-purity scandium oxide at Sorel-Tracy and tellurium at Kennecott.  

We also continue to look for opportunities to repurpose items we purchase at the end of useful life. For example, over the last 2 years, we have partnered with a local business to recycle end-of-life tyres and conveyor belts used to move ore from our operations across northern Australia. To date we have recycled more than 2,600 tonnes and are looking at opportunities to recycle additional tyres and conveyor belts from other operations.  

Some of our assets generate mineral waste with the potential to be chemically reactive, requiring careful management to prevent environmental impacts. We conduct independent reviews every 4 years to assess the effectiveness of our risk management programs and identify areas for improvement.  

In 2024, we completed this at 2 sites – Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) mining operations in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, and QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) near Fort Dauphin in the Anosy region of south-eastern Madagascar. Further opportunities to improve mineral waste management will continue at both sites in the short and long term. 

Year in review

Many of our assets have multi-year air quality improvement projects in place. For example, at IOC, there is a multidisciplinary working group focused on assessing dust abatement options. We are mitigating dust at the source by introducing new dust control technology. The working group is also exploring new mitigation options to further limit fugitive dust emissions from our operations. We have expanded our air quality monitoring network at IOC’s mine in Labrador City and at our Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium Quebec Operations Sorel-Tracy plant. 

In some instances, we exceeded permissible dust levels at nearby air quality monitoring stations. We investigated all high dust concentration events. Most resulted from unusual forest fires, such as those close to our operations in Labrador City, Canada, where exceedances were observed over a large region. Where IOC was found to have caused the reporting exceedance, it was due to calm winds and atmospheric inversions when contaminants from the induration stacks cannot disperse in the atmosphere and remain close to ground level. Improving our air quality monitoring network over the coming years will help us to prevent dust incidents in the future.

Year in review

We’re active members of ICMM and other industry associations and working groups seeking to drive improvements for our industry. Our involvement in the ICMM Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Working Group, GRI Biodiversity Technical Committee and the ICMM Nature Working Group have also contributed to the development of important industry resources, including the ICMM’s Nature Position Statement, the GRI Biodiversity Standard, the draft Consolidated Mining Standard, and the TNFD framework. 

We are stronger together in tackling these challenges. For example, through our ongoing membership of the ICMM Nature Working Group and continued engagement with the Proteus Partnership - a unique partnership agreement between major businesses and the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP WCMC), which aims to make global environmental information available to support better decisions - and our longstanding partnership with BirdLife International. Progress highlights for 2024 include: 

• Revised biodiversity priority site assessment of our operating asset potential impacts in the areas where we operate by using global datasets of threatened species, key biodiversity areas, and protected areas, developed by the UNEP WCMC. 
• Natural capital assessment pilot for our Gove operations in the Northern Territory, Australia to inform the understanding and development of the natural capital decision-making process to support nature value accretion for all stakeholders through the mine closure process. 
• Development of a systematic methodology and a consultative approach in understanding biodiversity material exposures and opportunities across our value chain.

Year in review

We’ve continued to progress our implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). This focuses on preventing tailings facility failures, reducing the social and environmental impacts of tailings facilities, and improving engagement and transparency on tailings with local communities. We have also assessed our progress on implementation through self-assessment and independent audits, using ICMM’s GISTM Conformance Protocols. 

In 2024, we completed implementation work for the tailings facilities that have a “Very High” or “Extreme” consequence classification, except where longer-term engineering works are required. However, there is still work to do to embed the changes made. The product group and Closure implementation teams continue to work towards full conformance for the remaining tailings facilities by August 2025. 

In August 2024, in accordance with Principle 15 of the GISTM, we updated our public tailings disclosures for the “Very High” and “Extreme” tailings storage facilities we operate. 
We also updated our disclosures for the other tailings facilities we operate that have lower GISTM consequence classifications, based on the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative (IMTSI) request for public disclosures on tailings. 

In 2024, we: 

• Continued to regularly convene the Tailings Management Committee with our designated Accountable Executives. This provides coordinated governance of tailings management practices across the Group. 
• Conducted multidisciplinary risk assessments for all our “Very High” and “Extreme” consequence facilities. 
• Continued to play an active role in the ICMM tailings working group, which provides guidance to support the safe, responsible management of tailings with the goal of eliminating fatalities and catastrophic events.

Governance

We continue to evolve our human rights performance to help prevent our involvement in adverse human rights impacts. We regularly review and update internal standards, systems and processes to integrate human rights due diligence and promote more responsible and ethical ways of working. In 2024, we provided the Sustainability Committee with an update on our human rights performance. 

Salient human rights issues: We continue to identify issues related to water and environment, and nature as emerging salient issues. In 2025, we will review our Group-wide salient issues. Assets conduct self-assessments to enable a more complete understanding of their risk context. There has been a significant increase in the quantity and quality of human rights risk self-assessments at assets (59 completed in 2024 compared to 24 in 2023). These self-assessments - whether standalone or integrated into broader enterprise risk assessments - help assets prioritise and take action to prevent human rights harm that is, or may be, connected to our activities. Examples of assessments included at our Pacific Aluminium assets as part of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certification; at 26 closure assets; and an independent human rights impact assessment at Simandou. Security and human rights assessments are ongoing at assets in more complex security contexts that involve both private and public security arrangements. 

Our business relationships

We partner with communities, business partners and other stakeholders to advance respect for human rights in line with international standards and our values. 

We continue to work with joint venture partners to provide human rights technical support and monitor human rights performance, including through Board and Committee roles for non-managed operations. 

Using a risk-based approach through our third party due diligence process, we pre-screen our potential business partners and complete desktop human rights reviews. In 2024, 6,359 third party due diligence reviews were completed, and 174 were escalated for human rights review. For higher-risk suppliers, we have developed action plans to support ongoing monitoring and evaluation of identified risks. We expect our suppliers (including subcontractors) to adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCOC), which includes respecting human rights. We updated our SCOC in 2024, alongside a new set of Sustainability Procurement Principles. The updated SCOC better reflects our commitments to sustainability, ethics and social responsibility with updated requirements on labour and human rights. In 2024, we focused due diligence efforts on higher-risk supplier categories, including logistics and renewables, due to operating contexts, and potentially higher-risk workforces. Our approach focuses on influencing broader industry change through trusted partnerships, rather than avoidance and termination of relationships. We also appointed a panel of independent human rights auditors to assess the labour rights performance of suppliers in high-risk categories and completed 3 pilot audits across key operating regions. 

Grievance and remedy 

Effective grievance management can enable more trusted relationships and help prevent human rights harm from occurring in the first place. Every asset is required to have a grievance mechanism. 

We are committed to providing for, or cooperating in, remediation when we identify we have caused or contributed to human rights harm. We may also play a role in remediation where we are directly linked to harm through our products, services or operations. Receiving feedback, complaints or grievances from stakeholders is an important part of ongoing human rights due diligence. In 2024, the human rights team provided support on a range of internal investigations and assessments with a focus on grievance and remedy processes, including at Oyu Tolgoi, Kennecott and in Laos. 

Capacity building on human rights 

Since everyone has a role in respecting human rights, our people are our first line of defence. In 2024, we developed a 3-year learning strategy which focuses on respect for human rights. 

We also launched a global learning program called Human Rights In Action to support our target to train everyone identified in higher-risk human rights roles by the end of the year. Higher-risk roles identified included a large proportion of our senior leaders across a range of functions and assets. 

The program included virtual events, a mandatory self-directed e-module and a toolkit to cascade learnings throughout the business. We will consider how this program continues to evolve in 2025. Our broader human rights training records are available in the 2024 Sustainability Fact Book. 

Collaboration 

It’s crucial that we collaborate with peers, civil society organisations and others, given the systemic nature of human rights issues. We identify and embrace initiatives that work to mitigate the root causes of human rights harm. We advocate on public policy efforts that help businesses further respect human rights. We continue to engage with peers, investors, civil society organisations, workers’ organisations and business partners on issues relating to human rights. 

In 2024, we continued to support ICMM’s Human Rights working group, the Human Rights Resources and Energy Collaborative, and the Mining Association of Canada’s International Social Responsibility Committee. We actively participate in the Voluntary Principles Initiative and UN Global Compact networks and attend regional business and human rights forums in Africa, Asia and Europe. For more information about how we engaged with key stakeholders, including civil society.

Year in review

We are committed to being responsible operators throughout the entire life of our assets, delivering value at every stage – from discovery to closure. 

Today, we plan for the end right from the beginning, incorporating closure in each stage of the asset lifecycle in the way we design, build and operate. We work with communities, governments and other stakeholders to complete closure activities and repurpose and renew sites for their next use. 

At the end of 2024, closure provisions on our balance sheet totalled $15.7 billion (2023: $17.2 billion). 

In 2024, we continued to mature our closure practices and develop our expertise through our approach.

Argyle diamond mine: We are rehabilitating the Argyle diamond mine on the traditional lands of the Miriwoong and Gija people in Western Australia. We have made significant progress on reprofiling the former processing plant area and waste rock dumps, as well as capping the tailings storage facility. We have reached over 60% overall project completion, and plans are underway to start removing the Argyle mine accommodation facilities, airport and utilities infrastructure in 2025. We are continuing to review our contracting strategy to increase work awarded to Traditional Owner businesses and increased our spend to A$44.9 million in 2024 (2023: A$37 million).

Gove refinery and residue disposal areas: In 2024, we reached the halfway mark for the demolition works at the Gove alumina refinery in the Northern Territory, which is Australia’s largest demolition project. We have removed the refinery’s liquor purification units and other structures, processing around 63,000 tonnes of scrap steel for recycling. The majority of the rehabilitation of the former tailings dam, Pond 5, is complete, with the opening of 3 spillways to allow appropriate drainage from the newly capped surface. We continue to work closely with Gumatj and Rirratjingu Traditional Owners, and the Northern Territory Government, to plan for a future beyond mining. In 2024, we spent A$85.5 million with Traditional Owner businesses (2023: A$94 million).

Ranger Rehabilitation Project: In April 2024, we entered into a Management Services Agreement (MSA) with Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) to manage the Ranger Rehabilitation Project with oversight from the ERA board. The MSA builds on ERA’s existing rehabilitation work and allows us to directly share our technical expertise in designing, scoping and executing closure projects, including stakeholder and delivery partner relationships. In November 2024, ERA concluded its entitlement offer and shortfall bookbuild, which raised A$766.5 million (before costs) to fund planned rehabilitation activities of the Ranger Project Area until approximately the third quarter of 2027. As a result of Rio Tinto taking up its pro rata entitlements in the entitlement offer and the level of participation by other ERA shareholders, we hold approximately 98.43% of ERA’s shares. As previously stated, we intend to move forward with compulsory acquisition of all remaining ERA shares we do not currently own. Since commencing management of the Ranger Rehabilitation Project in July 2024, we have progressed work in Pit 3, preparing the area for capping using amphirollers to dry the area and starting the geotextile laying. We remain committed to the successful rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area to a standard that will establish an environment similar to the adjacent Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage site. We continue to work with all key stakeholders, including the Mirarr People to complete this important rehabilitation project.

Legacy assets: In 2024 we saw an increase in progressive closure spend of 40%. This important work helps to reduce our impact and reduces closure costs long term. We develop asset closure strategies to identify potential future land uses and focus on opportunities to reduce closure costs and risks over the asset life cycle. We completed 4 additional asset closure strategies in 2024, and now have these in place for 62% of our active operations. All of our operating sites have closure plans, and we are developing closure plans for assets that have an indefinite life, such as some port facilities. We review these plans regularly to align with stakeholder expectations and to incorporate lessons learned from other closure projects. At operations with joint ownership structures, we endeavour to work in partnership with other asset owners to ensure we consider closure through asset design, planning and operations. A Closure Steering Committee, with senior representatives from across our business and chaired by Kellie Parker, Chief Executive Australia, provides oversight to our approach and finds opportunities for improvements and alignment across the business. We actively manage risk and find commercial opportunities within our portfolio. In 2024, we sold our interests in Sweetwater, a former uranium legacy site in Wyoming, US, for cash proceeds of $175 million. This supports the local economy with a new owner who is actively expanding operations in the region. We also signed an agreement with Alteo for Rio Tinto to be the last operator of the Mange-Garri bauxite residue disposal area in France to manage rehabilitation and support repurposing. Alteo will continue to operate and retain responsibility for the Gardanne refinery.

Compliance program developments 

Business integrity is core to how we build trust with our stakeholders. It forms the foundation of our ability to run our operations and maintain an ethical culture. We have continued to evolve our compliance program to align with leading industry practice, changes to the regulatory landscape and business integrity risks we face across the countries where we operate. During the year, we undertook a maturity assessment of our program, which concluded our program has a higher level of maturity than benchmarked peers. 

In 2024, we delivered several compliance program improvements: 

• We refined our online disclosures system for gifts and entertainment from, and to, third parties, conflicts of interest and sponsorship and donations.This increases transparency, promotes simplification, and allows us to automate approvals and workflow. 
• We launched a new Compliance Champions program, developing and leveraging a site-level network of employees to promote ethical behaviours. 
• We uplifted the maturity of our Data Privacy Compliance Program. This included implementing a refined Privacy Impact Assessment process and a new Privacy Statement, and reinvigorating the Data Privacy Lead network across the Group, while continuing to ensure compliance with new and changing privacy legislation across the jurisdictions where we operate. 
• We continued to enhance our Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) framework. We piloted a new TPRM system to increase automation and improve risk management exposure from third parties. We expect the new system to launch across the Group in 2025. 
• We continued to invest in our Sanctions Compliance Program through enhanced sanctions screening processes of third parties, deep dive reviews for parts of the business with higher sanctions exposure, and increased training of employees. 

Code of Conduct and annual training 

To help equip our workforce to navigate uncertain areas and spot ethical and compliance-related risks, in 2024, we launched a new annual Code of Conduct training. This training sets the foundation for the way we work, guiding ethical decision making and reflecting the safe and respectful environment we want to achieve for our people. Based on our Code of Conduct, it is designed to help all employees and contractors live our values of care, courage and curiosity. 

The new Code of Conduct training incorporates topics across all areas of our Code, providing examples of the values, commitments and behaviours we expect of our people. The online training has been completed by 27,050 of our people, and 21,406 have completed the offline version. Our Executive Committee attended an immersive face-to-face session. 

In addition to online Code of Conduct training, the Ethics and Compliance team delivered tailored risk-based face-to-face training on anti-bribery and corruption, data privacy, anti-trust and trade sanctions. A total of 7,624 employees received this training in 2024. We also provided business integrity training to our third parties on a risk basis. 

myVoice, our confidential reporting program 

A respectful and inclusive workplace, with a strong ethical culture that reflects our values, must include a safe space where individuals can speak up with confidence and without fear of retaliation. A strong culture of speaking up enables us to identify and address potential issues swiftly, respond appropriately, minimise risk, and ensure care for our people and the communities where we operate. 

The myVoice program enables confidential and anonymous reporting, including protected whistleblower disclosures. myVoice is operated by the Business Conduct Office (BCO), which reports to our Chief Legal, Governanceand Corporate Affairs Officer. The BCO provides regular program insights to the Board and the Group Ethics and Compliance Committee.