Three Rio Tinto businesses (Comalco, including the Gladstone Power Station; Kennecott Utah Copper; and Rio Tinto Coal Australia's Tarong mine) volunteered to participate in a pilot study to develop a consistent and practical methodology for developing cost curves of greenhouse gas emissions abatement opportunities.

The study was designed to consider emissions abatement opportunities at mineral processing facilities, a hard rock mine, a coal mine, and related power stations. The pilot study also drew on the experience of Hamersley Iron and Iron Ore Company of Canada, which initiated similar cost curve studies. PriceWaterhouseCoopers was engaged to assist us in the study.

The pilot study was completed in 2002. A number of important lessons have been learnt from the exercise, which will be helpful for Rio Tinto businesses undertaking the construction of their own carbon abatement cost curves. The information from the cost curves can assist those businesses in formulating the appropriate responses to taxes, regulations or other greenhouse emissions reduction policies, which they may face in the countries where they operate or market.