Rio Tinto's businesses use energy for mining, milling, smelting operations, electricity generation and transport. We aim to assess and utilise the most appropriate energy sources for our operations and activities and use this energy wisely.

In 2003, we used 227 petajoules of energy, a 1.3 per cent increase from 2002, mainly due to increased production at IOC Carol Project and increases in the amount of product transported by Hamersley Iron and Robe River.

Over the past five years there has been a 15 per cent increase in energy use. Most of this increase occurred in 2001 due to acquisitions.