Diamonds & Minerals
Chief executive, Diamonds and Minerals: Harry Kenyon-Slaney
The Diamonds & Minerals group comprises mining, refining and marketing operations across three sectors. Rio Tinto Diamonds is one of the world's leading diamond producers, active in mining and sales and marketing. Rio Tinto Minerals is a world leader in borates, with mines, processing plants, commercial and research facilities. Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium is an industry leader in high grade titanium dioxide.
Products
Overview: Diamonds, borates, titanium dioxide feedstocks, high purity iron, metal powders, zircon, rutile
Diamonds
Diamonds share the role with gold as an important component in jewellery that ranges from top end jewellery through to more affordable pieces. Rio Tinto is able to service all diamond jewellery markets as it produces the full range of diamonds in terms of size, quality and colour distribution including whites, champagnes, cognacs, greys, blues and greens and the rarest of all, pink diamonds.
Download the Diamonds fact sheet
Borates
Refined borates are used in hundreds of products and processes. They are a vital ingredient of many home and automotive applications, and are essential nutrients for crops. They are commonly used in glass and ceramic applications including fibreglass, television screens, floor and wall tiles, and heat resistant glass.
Titanium dioxide
The minerals ilmenite and rutile, together with titanium slag, can be transformed into a white titanium dioxide pigment or titanium metal. The white pigment is a key component in paints, plastics, paper, inks, textiles, food, sunscreen and cosmetics. Titanium metal's key properties of light weight, chemical inertness and high strength make it ideal for use in medical applications and in the aerospace industry.
Download the Minerals fact sheet
Operational highlights in 2010
| 2010 US$ million | 2009 US$ million | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 3,035 | 2,618 |
| Operating cash flow | 510 | 528 |
| Underlying earnings (a) | 328 | 800 |
| Capital expenditure | 300 | 519 |
| Net operating assets | 4,580 | 4,612 |
Find out more on Diamonds & Minerals' performance results in the Annual report
(a) See note 2 and the Financial information by business unit section of the 2010 financial statements for a reconciliation of underlying earnings to net earnings.
- Strategy
- 2010 key achievements
- Key priorities
- Outlook
- To maximise shareholder value by contributing material earnings to Rio Tinto and delivering better than comparable industry returns.
- To benefit from increasing demand for Diamonds & Minerals' products by improving the efficiency of the group's existing assets, building the growth projects in its pipeline and growing through value accretive acquisitions in existing and new sectors.
- To share best practices in safety and community engagement in order to maintain employer and developer of choice status across the six continents that constitute our operations base.
Fact sheets
Related websites
All links open in a new window.
