Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs
Purpose & Values
The drive for innovation and continuous improvement is at the heart of our purpose
Business Strategy
Climate change is at the heart of our business strategy
We are 150
150 years of finding better ways
We supply the metals and minerals used to help the world grow and decarbonise
Iron Ore
Iron ore is the primary raw material used to make steel
7 things the world will need for a low-carbon future
Wind, sun and water – what else do you need to make renewable energy work?
Sustainability – the expectation, not the exception
Shaping our aluminium product offering to meet demand for greener metals
Bringing to market materials critical to urbanisation and the transition to a low-carbon economy
Look inside a mine of the future
Our most intelligent mine yet is pioneering new mining technologies
Rincon Project
A long-life, low-cost and low-carbon lithium source
Simandou Project
The world’s largest untapped high-grade iron ore deposit
Providing materials the world needs in a responsible way
Sustainability Reporting 2022
We have a responsibility to extract the full value from the minerals and materials we produce in the safest and most sustainable way possible
Climate Change
We’re targeting net zero emissions by 2050
Tailings
We’ve launched a new interactive map of our tailings facilities
We aim to deliver superior returns to our shareholders while safeguarding the environment and meeting our obligations to wider society
Investor Seminar 2023
Sydney: 6 December 16:00 (AEDT) | 5:00 (GMT)
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New partnership a slapshot for sustainability
Rio Tinto becomes official aluminium partner of the Montreal Canadiens
Fuelling our tanks with renewable diesel
Diesel made from renewable raw materials is helping us reduce emissions
Rio Tinto commits $150 million to Centre for Future Materials led by Imperial College London
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Join our team
We want your innovative ideas and solutions to some of our current business challenges. Whether you’re a start-up entrepreneur or an existing business, with small-scale ideas or proven solutions and technology. We know that we’re stronger when we work together.
Our Pioneer Portal gives you a platform to be heard and potentially deliver real value to our business.
We’re looking for a partner to help us repurpose mineral waste.
We’re developing a mineral processing operation that will produce a pressure-filtered by-product made from gypsum and magnesium/iron hydroxides, using plate filter technology. We believe that the unique material properties open the door for a range of repurposing options.
The material has a low moisture content that meets transportation requirements and we’re investigating how this by-product could be repurposed to eliminate the need for storage.
We are looking for partners with innovative technologies and ideas for repurposing this mineral processing by-product. Our preference is for high tonnage solutions for on-site use, but commercial off-site applications are also of interest.
Let’s work together to solve this challenge and make a lasting difference to local communities and the environment.
Submissions have now closed.
For further information, please review this document
At Rio Tinto, we’re finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.
We are looking to partner with experts to enhance our environmental monitoring and mineral waste characterisation.
Our mines or processing facilities, whether operational or closed, include some form of sensing for water, air, soil, and sediment, using manual (or semi-automated) sampling in remote locations followed by chemical analysis in a laboratory.
Opportunities exist to improve the current environmental monitoring and mineral and industrial waste characterisation practices with online, connected in-situ and remote sensors.
We are reaching out to the global research, technology, and innovation industry, seeking solution providers with whom we can partner to develop projects that can overcome current challenges at our assets. These projects will play an integral part in the R&D pipeline of opportunities for the next three years and beyond.
We are willing to fund and/or cost share individual projects from US$50,000 up to US$1 million. Funding may be made available as a mix of cash and in-kind (eg. site access for prototyping or testing, subject matter expertise, wastewater samples).
For further information please review these documents
Webinar: 7 June 2023
Register your interest Sensing technology Q&A Webinar
Stage 1 (Concept paper) submission deadline: 28 June 2023
Stage 1 successful submissions announcement: 26 July 2023
Stage 2 (full proposal submission) deadline: 4 September 2023
Informing selected submission for contracts discussion: 9 October 2023
The submission of Stage 1 is now closed.
We have formed a Tailings Consortium with BHP to develop solutions to improve tailings dewatering and management. Together we have launched the Tailings Technologies Open Call to identify and accelerate the market availability of innovative, holistic, and economically sustainable technologies to improve the dewatering, transportation, monitoring and stacking of mine tailings, and reduce potential safety risks associated with tailings facilities.
We are seeking out original ideas, from the unproven to those ready to deploy. Your idea should address a collaboration opportunity relevant to our business. In turn, we may support you with funding, laboratory and research space, professional coaching, access to operations, or if it is a product purchase.
Here’s what will happen once you submit your idea:
This process can take up to two months.
Whether you are providing a solution for one of our current business challenges or sharing your own technology, here is what you will need to provide when submitting your idea:
Brief description of the idea, solution or product, including:
What is considered to be the potential value to Rio Tinto if the idea is fully developed? This may relate to our business priorities - Safety, People, Cash, Growth and Partnerships.
How would this solution be deployed, including:
What is the product status of your solution, including:
What support from us or expectations are you looking for? That is:
In return, what will you provide?
Please provide any materials that could support your submission.
It’s almost two kilometres to the bottom of Resolution Copper’s mine shafts. At these depths, temperatures can reach around 80°C.
More
Working in these temperatures requires continuous cooling supplied through huge ventilation systems – and these giant air conditioners require a lot of electricity to run. To help reduce carbon emissions, the Resolution Copper team sought a solution to capture and use the energy created by latent heat sources like underground water.
More than 20 companies contributed a range of possible solutions, ranging from early-stage developments to off-the-shelf products. These included absorption coolers, which use heat from air and water to produce cool air – like a refrigerator; using geothermal heat to create electricity to run the air conditioners; and converting solar energy from the surface to power the air conditioners below the ground.
The Resolution Copper project is now working with two companies to further investigate possible solutions. Our Energy and Climate Change teams are looking at how other proposed solutions could be used more broadly across Rio Tinto.
Aluminium is made using a process where carbon anodes create a chemical reaction, changing alumina into the shiny, lightweight metal used in everything from food packaging to cars. Through the smelting process, the carbon anodes are consumed.
For many years our Bell Bay aluminium operation has been pioneering a coating for carbon anodes to help reduce consumption, and therefore waste. Through the Pioneer Portal, the team sought a world-first solution to automatically apply their protective coating on baked carbon anodes.
Companies offered solutions ranging from immersion to spraying. The Bell Bay team is now working with a company to introduce robotic manufacturing technologies – like those used in the automotive industry – to apply the protective coating on their anodes.
Whether you are an individual inventor, or represent a small business or listed company, after submitting your idea, a mail response will acknowledge your submission and you will be contacted by us again within two months.
We need:
Supporting documents can be attached when completing the form. Please remember that all information submitted must be non-confidential.
For more information, please refer to the 'What you'll need to provide' section higher on this page.
Patents and other forms of intellectual property are used to establish ownership and protect the legal rights of the owners of various kinds of innovations and works. For your own protection and ours, we may decline to review your open innovation submission if it appears to lack intellectual property protection.
We cannot advise you on if you should pursue a patent, design or other form of intellectual property protection. For more information regarding the nature of intellectual property and its uses, you may wish to consult your legal representative or appropriate government agencies.
Please first describe your innovation without disclosing any confidential information. If we have interest in learning more, we will contact you to establish the necessary agreements.
Our initial review is based wholly on the non-confidential information you provide in your open innovation submission. Face-to-face meetings, phone conferences, or live demonstrations are not usually required at this stage.
It can take up to two months for our initial review to be carried out. If we need additional information during that period, we will contact you.
We therefore ask that you be patient and not contact us about your submission.
Who will review my submission and how long will the review take?
Each innovation is posted onto our internal social networking tool, Yammer, for open review by the Rio Tinto community. Additionally, these are reviewed by an expert panel who determines how to route it to ensure it reaches the relevant people within our company. In many cases, this can mean review by several parts of the organisation to evaluate technical merit or strategic business fit for us.
We are committed to reaching a decision as quickly as possible, however a thorough initial review, especially of a technological innovation, may take up to two months to complete.
Compensation is an important component of any business transaction. The value of an idea will be determined in discussions between Rio Tinto and the party which controls the rights to the intellectual property and its practice. Each property is therefore evaluated on its own merits and as a result, there is no standard amount.
This could take a variety of forms, depending upon the specifics of the innovation and both the potential partner's and our needs, including a licensing or supply agreement, or other type of collaborative venture.
We understand that those submitting to the open innovation portal desire feedback, including the reasons why we may decide to decline an opportunity. However, we are usually not at liberty to give detailed reasons. Generally speaking, submissions are most often declined for one or more of the following reasons:
What does Rio Tinto do with personal information that I provide with my open innovation portal registration?
Rio Tinto will use this information to communicate with you about your submission. It will not be used for any other purpose, nor will it shared with any third party.
We encourage you to include proof points or evidence that can help to provide us with confidence in the feasibility and effectiveness of your solution or concept, and to recommend a course of action.
We may elect to proceed with any, all or none of the submissions. Similarly, there could be aspects of your solution that could work with other solutions, hence consider whether you would be willing to work with other third parties. This will be discussed on an individual basis.
Please submit via the form on the Pioneer Portal and ensure that you agree to the Terms and Conditions.
For further clarification email pioneerportal@riotinto.com.
All information or advice provided as part of this website is intended to be general in nature. Rio Tinto is not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice or for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result of you taking this action.
By submitting any ideas or other material you agree that Rio Tinto does not have any duty to treat such ideas or other material as confidential even when such ideas or other material are marked as or referred to by you as confidential.
By submitting your proposal you agree with the above and confirm having read and agreed to our Terms and Conditions and privacy notice.
How we process personal data provided or obtained through this website.
With the exception of the use of cookies, Rio Tinto generally does not seek to collect personal data through this website. However if you choose to provide personal data to Rio Tinto through this website (for example, by sending us an email), we will process that personal data to answer your query and if relevant, to manage our business relationship with you or your company. We won't process that personal data for other purposes except where required to meet our legal obligations or otherwise as authorised by law and notified to you.
If you choose to subscribe to our media releases or other communications, you can unsubscribe at any time (by following the instructions in the email or by contacting us).
With your consent, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of our Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
With the exception of the use of cookies (explained below), Rio Tinto generally does not seek to collect personal data through this website. However if you choose to provide personal data to Rio Tinto through this website (for example, by sending us an email), we will process that personal data to answer your query and if relevant, to manage our business relationship with you or your company. We won't process that personal data for other purposes except where required to meet our legal obligations or otherwise as authorised by law and notified to you.
Part 1 of this Privacy Policy contains the Rio Tinto Data Privacy Standard, which provides an overview of Rio Tinto’s approach to personal data processing. There is additional information in the appendices to the Data Privacy Standard, including information about disclosures, trans-border data transfers, the exercise of data subject rights and how to make complaints or obtain further information relating to Rio Tinto’s processing of your personal data.
If you choose to subscribe to our media releases or other communications, you can unsubscribe at any time (by following the instructions in the email or by contacting us at digital.comms@riotinto.com).
With your consent, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of this Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
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