Board's statement on disclosure controls and procedures

In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited, the common management of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited, including their respective common chief executive and finance director, recognised that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and the management of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited necessarily was required to apply its judgement in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited have been detected.

The common management of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited, with the participation of their common chief executive and finance director, have evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of its disclosure controls and procedures as of the period covered by the 2006 Annual report and financial statements. Based on that evaluation, the chief executive and finance director of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited have concluded that these disclosure controls and procedures are effective at a reasonable assurance level.

There were no significant changes in the internal controls or in other factors that could significantly affect internal controls of each of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited subsequent to the date of their most recent evaluation.