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
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
We work across six continents in around 35 countries
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
Water
Sharing our water usage
We aim to deliver superior returns to our shareholders while safeguarding the environment and meeting our obligations to wider society
Rio Tinto Limited 2023 AGM
Perth: 4 May 2023
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Breaking new ground for copper supply
Taking the world’s fourth-largest copper mine underground
The slow journey from red mud to green plants
Finding new ways to rehabilitate red mud
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We are finding better ways to work with communities and Indigenous peoples, particularly in how we protect heritage. We are moving to a model of co-management of land and waters, and we are updating our agreements to deliver more enduring socioeconomic, heritage and environmental outcomes. This, in turn, delivers greater certainty for mine development.
Our ability to work together to deliver positive outcomes is increasingly important as society comes together to address global challenges like climate change. Our communities and social performance and site teams are starting to work with Indigenous communities to explore opportunities for them to participate in our climate initiatives.
The destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in May 2020 was a clear breach of our values and the trust placed in us by Indigenous peoples to respect the lands on which we operate. In the two years since, we have been changing the way we work in every part of our business.
We have been working hard to implement meaningful change in the way Indigenous cultural heritage within our operations is managed and protected.
In September 2022, we released our second Communities and Social Performance Commitments Disclosure Report. The report details progress made in areas such as partnering with Pilbara Traditional Owners in modernising and improving agreements; introducing a new Communities and Social Performance model across the company; improving our governance, planning and systems relating to communities; and increasing Indigenous leadership and developing cultural competency within Rio Tinto.
In 2022 we finalised a new suite of communities and social performance targets, following the end of our previous target reporting period (2016-2021). The new targets will help us monitor progress towards the core objectives of our communities and social performance Group strategy. We have transitioned from having individually set and defined local asset targets to common global targets, which will allow us to see progress across the Group as well as for individual assets. Our assets will continue to maintain local targets and metrics, developed in consultation with local communities, in addition to the global targets. Reporting will evolve over the next 12 months.
Communities and social performance targets 2022-2026
Reporting status
By 2026, all sites to co-manage cultural heritage with communities and knowledge holders.
Progress will be evaluated through a co-management maturity assessment currently in development for reporting from 2023.
Year-on-year increase in contestable spend sourced from suppliers local to our operations.
Baseline included in the 2022 Sustainability Fact Book for:
Progress against target reported annually from 2023.
By 2026, 70% of total community investment to be through strategic, outcomes focused partnerships.
Progressive reporting through roll-out of the social investment strategy and framework in 2023.
By 2024, 100% of employees in high human rights risk roles to complete yearly job-specific and general human rights training.
By 2026, 100% of employees to complete yearly general human rights training.
Progressive reporting with 2022 focus on training development and role mapping.
Mining and processing, by its very nature, disturbs the environment and can impact surrounding communities. It also delivers significant economic and social benefits, including the production of essential materials, employment, small business development, tax and royalty streams, training and skills development, and socioeconomic programmes.
We recognise that while the benefits of our activities are widespread, many of the negative impacts are localised. Our teams work in partnership with communities to understand how our activities impact their lives, culture and heritage. Through meaningful engagement, we can respond to community concerns, mitigate negative impacts and optimise socioeconomic benefits.
Everywhere we work, through all stages of the life of our operations, we respect and support all internationally recognised human rights, in line with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights.
Our teams – everyone from archaeologists and economic development experts to human rights specialists and our operational leaders – work in partnership with our communities to understand how our work affects their lives, their culture and their heritage. By doing so, we can respond to community concerns and work to optimise benefits and reduce negative impacts, both for the local community and for the company.
Our communities and social performance standard defines the way we engage communities, and outlines the steps we take to identify and manage social, economic, environmental, cultural and human rights impacts throughout the life cycle of our projects, from exploration, to project development, to operation and closure. It also outlines our approach for managing and responding to community concerns and complaints, as well as closing operational sites.
We consult and engage with our communities regularly, in good faith, and in ways that are transparent, inclusive, and culturally appropriate. For example, we often have community information centres in local towns and villages and toll-free contact numbers community members can call with questions or complaints. We design our engagement so it is relevant and appropriate for the local context, in terms of method of communication and language.
We seek to ensure that our engagement practices respect human rights, that diverse voices are heard and that vulnerable and “at risk” groups can participate in engagement processes. As part of this engagement, we address community concerns, needs and priorities.
In addition, we only award work to contractors who are able to comply with and deliver our Group and site-specific communities and social performance requirements, as well as any local requirements. We also look for ways to increase our leverage to help our business partners respect human rights in line with international standards.
We measure, monitor and review our communities and social performance against targets, to help us continue improving. This includes reporting and communicating on how we are addressing human rights impacts, both positive and negative.
We believe we have an important role to play in ensuring that the green energy transition is progressed in a fair and socially inclusive way. This will be a key focus for our communities and social performance teams from 2022 and will include active community engagement, managing potential adverse social and human rights impacts and exploring and enabling ways for host communities to share in economic opportunities.
In 2021, our QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and its partners laid the foundation stone for a new solar and wind energy plant. In addition to allowing our operations in Madagascar to be carbon neutral by 2023, the plant will replace the majority of the electricity supplied to Fort-Dauphin and its 80,000 community members with clean energy. QMM and its partners are working with local authorities to develop manufacturing capacity to produce equipment for the renewable industry locally.
We continue to strengthen our social performance governance, capacity and capability. In 2022, we launched our revised Communities and Social Performance Standard. It applies to all managed operations globally and will help us work thoughtfully, responsibly and transparently. It provides clear direction on what success looks like and the minimum standard expected across our global operations.
In 2022, we also launched the 2022 to 2027 Group communities and social performance vision, goal and strategic framework, which will guide our activities over the next five years and help improve our performance. Our vision is to respect and enable communities to realise their goals and aspirations and create long-term shared benefits.
We continue to build internal capability and collaboration across our teams working in communities and social performance, Indigenous affairs and cultural heritage. In 2022, we held two global conferences in Brisbane and Montreal for more than 260 communities and social performance employees to explore complex technical issues and share good practice and learnings. These conferences also offered the opportunity to engage with civil society organisations, investors and academia on emerging communities and social performance trends and practice. As we evolve our approach to co-design and co-management, we continue to listen to the wealth of knowledge that resides both inside and outside our business.
We have changed the way we engage with Indigenous communities. We are progressively working more closely in partnership with Indigenous peoples across our operations to preserve and protect cultural heritage. We are moving to a model of co-management to ensure Indigenous voices are heard as part of our decision making.
During 2022, we continued to revise our standards, systems and processes to ensure we are working responsibly to avoid and minimise impacts and risks to our operations, people and communities.
We have established an Australian Advisory Group to provide guidance on current and emerging issues, and better manage policies and positions that are important to both Australian communities and our broader business. The group continues to refine its scope and procedures for providing high-quality advice to the Chief Executive Australia and the Executive Committee.
We have now operationalised the set of controls that manage our cultural heritage risks, with an emphasis placed on understanding the control performance at a local level. Our global Communities and Social Performance Area of Expertise continues to provide subject matter advice and support to our assets to strengthen the risk assessment processes across our business.
In 2020, we engaged Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to undertake an independent cultural heritage management audit across all our sites. Phase one of the audit was completed in mid-2022 and focused on 20 audits across our Australian assets.
Field work for phase two was completed in December 2022 and focused on 17 audits across our non-Australian operations. Phase one of the audit found that the changes introduced over the past two years have improved on-ground management. For example, a number of assets globally are progressing projects with community partners to document intangible cultural heritage values. This includes methodologies such as constellation mapping and training on new methods for recording oral histories. The report identified four areas for improvement: managing water as a cultural resource, managing artefacts, integrating data, and continuing to build our team of experienced cultural heritage practitioners.
A summary of audit findings from phase one and two will be released at the end of the first quarter in 2023. Based on the recommendations, we will then work on a response plan in consultation with our cultural heritage teams and cultural heritage knowledge and rights holders.
We are evolving our culture to encourage a mindset and behavioural shift at all levels of our organisation. We have a programme of work in progress that focuses on advancing respect for the peoples and cultures on whose land we live and work, which links closely to the work we are doing as part of the Everyday Respect initiative.
We continue to increase the number of Indigenous leaders in our business and develop our cultural competency. Reducing the barriers for Indigenous employees in our business and increasing cultural intelligence will help us become a better operator and a more inclusive workplace. In October 2022, we launched an internal protocol for the use of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property in Australia to ensure we follow appropriate processes when commissioning or reproducing Indigenous design or artwork within our business and engaging in Indigenous art and design projects. This will continue to be rolled out throughout 2023.
We continue to create learning opportunities for our people in Canada to raise awareness about the history, culture and rights of Indigenous peoples. During National Indigenous History Month, we held a series of events focusing specifically on Indigenous women. In September, we celebrated National Truth and Reconciliation Day and hosted a panel focusing on tangible ways to promote reconciliation and create a more inclusive and culturally safe work environment.
In addition to raising awareness, we have been focusing on identifying and addressing some of the recruitment opportunities and barriers for Indigenous peoples, and particularly Innu First Nations candidates. We prioritised eastern Canada in 2022 and took a number of actions. We established employment and training committees in partnership with Indigenous job placement agencies and we revised our recruitment process, including hiring criteria, pre-employment checks and verification processes. These changes resulted in 31 new Indigenous hires.
In 2021, our Iron Ore product group developed an Indigenous participation strategy to attract and develop Indigenous employees and promote a culturally safe working environment.
Throughout 2022, we continued to make significant progress. We have:
In 2022, QMM worked together with national and local authorities, representatives of the communities and Traditional Owners to address complaints raised by members of the local communities through a grievance management process. Throughout the year, the parties continued to work together to find equitable and sustainable solutions and we will continue to work closely with the community on these issues in 2023. Despite the challenges at QMM, we are implementing initiatives to strengthen our collaboration with the community. One example is our village nursery project, which generates income for the community that is supporting the rehabilitation of the area surrounding the Mandena mine. In 2022, QMM invested over $550,000 to support rehabilitation activities, producing 300 tonnes of compost and providing 1,500,000 seedlings used for commercial tree planting, ecological restoration, greening of the area around Mandena and an offset plantation near the future mining lease in Ambatoatsinana. Community associations are the input suppliers, and some community members are also employed. More than 400 households have benefited from QMM’s rehabilitation activities. In addition, QMM will increase its spending on its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy over the next three years to implement development projects in full collaboration with the communities and for the benefit of all local community members.
We recognise the enduring historical connection Native American tribes have with the land at, or near, the proposed mine and we have partnered with the Tonto National Forest Service and Native American tribes to develop a programme to train tribal members in archaeological surveys and to help us identify sites of special significance to tribes.
The project is going through comprehensive and independent social and environmental regulatory reviews. The US Forest Service (USFS) published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in January 2021. In March 2021, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) directed the USFS to retract the FEIS, which allowed the agency to undertake further review and consultation.
Recognising the cumulative impacts that will occur as a result of the development of Simandou, we are also working with our infrastructure and joint venture partners to ensure the consistent application of internationally recognised environmental and social performance standards across the entire project footprint. We are also working towards raising local capacities to maximise local content.
Engaging with local entrepreneurs and investing in training and development of local capacities is key to optimise benefits to our host communities.
The DSF also funded the Gobi History and Nature Museum, which opened in May 2022.
It has already benefitted tourism in the region by attracting more than 28,000 people, and it is playing an important role in protecting and promoting Mongolian cultural heritage. We continue to engage with local communities through the Khanbogd Tripartite Council (TPC). In 2022, we focused on herder sustainable livelihood, student scholarships and pastureland water access.
In 2022, sustainability advisory committees at Halco and CBG levels met regularly, strengthening our oversight and providing support to CBG for the improvement of CBG’s social and environmental practices, including for the development of an ongoing human rights due diligence process. Both the Halco and CBG advisory committees are closely following CBG’s response to a complaint made to the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO).
The mediation process facilitated by the CAO has conducted seven sessions in 2022 and through a collaborative approach the parties made important progress towards an agreement on the improvement of community access to water. Halco continues to participate in the mediation process as an observer, alongside the IFC.
In September 2020, the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) filed a complaint against Rio Tinto on behalf of 156 Bougainville residents with the Australian National Contact Point (AusNCP) regarding the Panguna site.
In 2021, as an outcome of the AusNCP engagement, a joint committee of stakeholders, the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment Committee, was formed to oversee a detailed independent assessment of the Panguna mine to identify and better understand the environmental and human rights impacts of the mine. The Committee is chaired by an independent facilitator with representatives from the ABG, the Independent State of PNG, clan leaders and landowners, local communities, Rio Tinto, BCL and HRLC. It has met regularly since its formation.
In 2021, the Committee commissioned the Panguna Mine Preparatory Phase Report to inform priority areas for the Impact Assessment. Completed in 2022, the report identified risks of potential failure of the levee at the former Main/Pump station, and potential flooding events along the Kawerong and Jaba river. On behalf of the ABG, Tetra Tech Coffey completed on-the-ground investigations in October 2022 and will present findings to the ABG who will determine next steps.
In 2022, the Committee selected and endorsed Tetra Tech Coffey to complete phase 1 of the independent environmental, social and human rights Legacy Impact Assessment. The Legacy Impact Assessment began in December 2022 and will provide all parties with a clearer understanding of the impacts, so that together we can consider the best way forward.
Supporting economic opportunities for our host communities and regions is a key priority for us and we strive to employ local people, buy local products and engage local services. In 2022, our total voluntary global social investment was $62.6 million, covering a wide range of social and economic programmes. In 2022, we spent $2.7 billion with suppliers local to our operations, which is 14.5% of our total contestable spend.
In early 2020 as COVID-19 was starting to affect the world, we announced a pledge of US$25 million to assist the communities where we live and work in preparing for, living through, and recovering from the pandemic.
The pledge was over and above our committed voluntary social investment and the implementation of the fund was led by our operations and supporting grassroots communities across the globe. We set investment principles to prioritise value-in-kind investments, or specific grassroots community programmes linked to COVID-19 preparedness or mitigation including health and economic impacts.
“We were able to focus our efforts on countries that have a close connection to local communities,” says Hannah, Manager, Social Investment Australia.
In April 2021, all remaining funds were allocated to support communities that were suffering the most including Mongolia, Guinea, South Africa and Madagascar.
Hannah said that a $1 million donation to UNICEF was something that really stood out for her.
“UNICEF has played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic through its role with COVAX, so being able to donate $1 million to turn COVID-19 vaccines into lifesaving vaccinations through vaccine delivery, technical expertise, cold chain strengthening, and immunisation logistics management was really important for us.”
We seek to operate in a manner consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognises the right of Indigenous peoples to ‘maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources’ (Article 25).
We strive to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples (as defined in the IFC Performance Standard 7 on “Indigenous Peoples”) in line with the International Council on Mining and Metals position statement on Indigenous peoples and mining.
We provide easily accessible ways for community members to provide feedback and make complaints, in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - so we can work on issues together and take remedial actions where needed. Every site is required to have a complaints, disputes and grievances mechanism that operates in line with these criteria.
Our communities approach aligns with the ICMM Sustainability Framework, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. We use the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability; our CSP standard commits us to compliance with the following IFC Performance Standards:
We also support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
When we engage with our communities, we aim to:
Resettlement is a measure of last resort. From time to time, in order to run a safe, viable operation, we have to resettle communities. We do this only when all other options have been explored and exhausted.
We respect people’s land rights and work hard to help to preserve the social harmony of resettled people and we have policies and processes in place to make sure their standard of living and livelihood is sustainably restored or improved over the long term. We ensure our practices are in line with the International Finance Corporation's Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement Performance Standard and our other international human rights commitments. We also ensure community members have access to rights-compatible complaints mechanisms that enable us to solve problems together and take remedial actions when needed.
Learn more about our Group policies and standards
We are proud to be the first mining company in Australia to embrace native title to land and to form agreements with Traditional Owners
Cultural heritage is the aspects of a community's past and present that it considers valuable and wants to pass on to future generations
We work hard to leave a lasting, positive legacy everywhere we work
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.
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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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