Rio Tinto is a world leader in finding, mining and processing the earth's mineral resources to supply essential minerals and metals. Our statement of business practice The way we work lies at the heart of our implementation of responsible corporate conduct.

The way we work summarises the Group's policies for all employees. It is designed to ensure that employees reflect in their daily work the high standards and values we share, key among which are accountability, fairness, integrity and openness.

This section of the website comprises the 2003 Social and environment review of our policies, programmes and performance. The sections (see menu on left hand side of page) are structured according to the policies in The way we work.

We report on activities at the Rio Tinto Group level, comprising 30 managed businesses which in total control 83 active operations, seven development projects, five exploration regions and five closed operations. Data are also collected from head office and support functions.

The main changes from 2002 are divestment of the Peak gold mine in Australia and Rio Tinto Zimbabwe's Patchway gold mine. In addition, the sale of the Fortaleza nickel mine in Brazil was announced in December 2003. However, given that the sale transaction was not completed until January 2004, data for Fortaleza have been included for 2003.

Data are reported for calendar years. Unless otherwise stated, data are for operations managed by Rio Tinto in that year and are the total for the parameter at each operation even though equity ownership may be less than 100 per cent.

Where relevant, the performance sections in this review contain information on data reliability, including the basis of data collection and reporting, methodologies and changes in historic data.

In addition to this Group level Social and environment review, each of our businesses and the Exploration group produce their own social and environment reports. These and other publications, including previous reports, can be accessed through the Rio Tinto library.

Feedback on the format or content of our Social and environment review is useful to us in preparing future reviews and our social and environment programmes. We welcome your feedback.