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
Results
Half Year Results 2023 released 26 July
Get the latest news, stories and updates
Nammuldi rock shelter
Our statement on the Nammuldi rock shelter
The slow journey from red mud to green plants
Finding new ways to rehabilitate red mud
Rio Tinto commits $150 million to Centre for Future Materials led by Imperial College London
Discover more about life at Rio Tinto
Graduates & Students
If you want to drive real change, we have just the place to do it
Empowering families with flexibility
Supporting new parents of any gender with equal access to parental leave
Available jobs
Join our team
Following the tragic destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in May 2020, 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.
In November 2022, we agreed with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation to create the Juukan Gorge Legacy Foundation as part of a remedy agreement relating to the destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge. Financial support will be provided to the Traditional Owner-led foundation to progress major cultural and social projects, including a new keeping place for storing important cultural materials. The agreement forms part of our commitment to remedy and rebuild the relationship with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.
As part of our commitment to modernise our relationships with Traditional Owners, in November 2022, we signed an updated agreement with Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation. The agreement aims to provide better social and economic outcomes for future generations and reflects our commitment to create opportunities for Yindjibarndi people to participate in our operations. The agreement also includes support for Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation to develop community, commercial and cultural projects and programmes to fulfil its aspirations of self-determination.
We continue to collaborate with Indigenous groups in Canada to implement agreements.
We have 11 active long-term impact benefits/ participation agreements, and three potential agreements are in discussion. Our agreements include areas such as training and employment procurement, land and water management, joint environmental monitoring and community investment. We are also working in partnership with Indigenous communities to look at how we protect and preserve cultural heritage.
At our Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories, we are working with Indigenous partners to develop criteria for water quality to ensure that water is healthy and safe from a western science perspective and from a traditional cultural use perspective. This initiative values both western science and traditional knowledge and it will be evaluated equally by the Wek’èezh.i Land and Water Board and the regulator. It is part of a co-management regulatory regime to ensure future traditional use of the local land and water. In the northern part of British Columbia, we have announced a significant archaeological research project together with the Cheslatta Carrier Nation. The project will excavate sites of remarkable cultural and historical significance that could date back more than 10,000 years.
In the Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec, we announced the signing of an agreement with Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation in December 2022. This agreement – named Kuessilueu, which means “the wind is turning” in Nelueun – is the start of a collaborative process that will bring Pekuakamiulnuatsh and Rio Tinto representatives together in a co-designed approach to identify priorities and recommendations on governance, jobs and training, business opportunities, cultural heritage, environment, partnerships, and energy transition. The agreement will involve a large group of people and aims to create a movement, with each participant becoming an agent of change in their respective area. As part of this agreement, an Indigenous awareness programme will be launched for our employees in the region.
We have many agreements with groups around the world. These community agreements are long-term, often with horizons beyond 50 years, and they help us establish relationships and run our business in a way that delivers mutual value.
Our agreements set the framework for how we engage with communities and Indigenous peoples, often going beyond legal requirements and forming part of a long-term relationship that often spans decades. This framework also sets the value-sharing model for the financial and non-financial benefits communities receive for access to land, as well as the agreements for cultural heritage management and a range of other important actions.
Our community agreements are negotiated agreements with Indigenous peoples, local communities and others. Not every mining or extractives company forms agreements, but we feel they are important in part because they demonstrate respect and commitment to inclusive engagement with communities and land-connected peoples.
These agreements, often the result of many years of engagement, document not only mutual obligations that are both enforceable and auditable, but also codify ‘the how’ – the behaviours expected from our employees and contractors. They help reduce potential effects of a project on communities and their environment. And they help make sure benefits are shared directly with those affected, and empower communities to make decisions about how those benefits are used.
Ultimately, agreements are a mechanism for accountability and provide companies and communities with mutual performance indicators that cover all stages; from exploration through to project planning and operations, including after closure.
Our agreements also provide beneficiary payments, deliver social and economic outcomes and engage with Indigenous groups in cultural heritage, employment, business development, and training and education activities. In Australia, for example, our land access agreements allow us to compensate, via trust funds and other mechanisms, Traditional Owners for the operations and presence we have on their land.
We also have robust management systems for monitoring compliance, and to track and review implementation outcomes. Often, monitoring is done with or by our communities – for example, at our Diavik operations, in Canada, a panel of scientists and local Indigenous people gather every three years to assess our environmental impact and ensure we continue to deliver on our agreement.
Our approach to engagement with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders was fundamentally reshaped by key legal events in Australia with the High Court’s Mabo decision in 1992, and the introduction of native title legislation, which recognised native title to land in 1993. Under this law, the ‘right to negotiate’ provision facilitated a culture of agreement making in Australia.
We were proud to be the first mining company in Australia to embrace native title to land and to form agreements with Traditional Owners. Today, we have many such agreements globally.
In Canada, our first agreement was at the Diavik Diamond Mine, where, in 1999, we signed a Socio Economic Monitoring Agreement (SEMA) with the Northwest Territories government and five impacted Metis, First Nations and Inuit organisations. This was followed by the signing of individual Participation Agreements with each of the communities in 2000 and 2001.
The development of new assets, such as Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, has also allowed us to explore agreement processes in a context that went beyond Indigenous groups to land-connected peoples more broadly.
All actions related to an agreement and its implementation are termed ‘agreement processes’. This includes consultation, negotiation, ratification, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review.
Because our agreements can cover such different aspects of our operations, be developed at different stages of the mining life cycle and are subject to different local and national laws, we do not follow a single agreement-making process. However, we do adhere to common principles and commitments:
The agreements include provisions that stipulate which community members should be involved in the agreement-making process and consulted on impacts and opportunities. We know that mining can be complex, and so we aim to explain our business and processes in ways that are accessible to a broad set of stakeholders. We take care to engage in ways that are culturally appropriate, and that we communicate clearly and openly.
We conduct detailed assessments – involving both government and community groups – to identify the local social, economic, heritage and legal context of each community. This includes assessing possible impacts of our operations on local people – and what opportunities we can bring too. We also build an understanding of relevant community groups, including their goals and expectations, governance structures and decision-making process.
Once we have built a strong understanding of the local context, possible impacts and opportunities, we develop agreements that align our vision and goals with those of the local community. We communicate regularly with our communities, and implement our commitments in ways that contribute to their socioeconomic development.
We set targets and indicators to monitor progress and performance against our agreements. Both our employees and representatives of the community are involved in monitoring and evaluation activities, and we use a variety of tools such as social risk assessments, communities review and complaints processes, as well as independent review mechanisms to agree and implement improvements to existing agreements and their outcomes.
Our agreements touch all areas of our operations – from managing environmental impacts to procurement. We clearly communicate our agreement obligations through. We report on our performance internally and externally, in culturally appropriate and accessible ways.
The form of agreement we reach depends on the needs and circumstances of the operation and local communities – including their socio-economic priorities – as well as the national and local legal context.
The most common agreements we form are:
Some types of agreements are specific to particular jurisdictions. For details of various types of agreements and treaties in different jurisdictions – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa – visit the Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements website, a University of Melbourne initiative supported by the Australian Research Council and Rio Tinto.
We conduct community agreements in good faith, and approach agreement negotiations based on the International Finance Corporation’s principles. These include:
A successful agreement:
A key aspect of successful agreement-making also involves understanding community views on the effectiveness of agreements and seeking their input into how we can improve them. Since the tragic events of Juukan Gorge in May 2020, our Iron Ore business has been undertaking a process of review that marks an important step in rebuilding relationships with many host communities and Traditional Owners across the Pilbara.
Native Title is the communal, group or individual rights and interests of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to land and waters, possessed under traditional law and custom, by which those people have a connection with an area which is recognised under Australian law.
The recognition of Native Title led to the establishment of the Native Title Act in 1994. This provides the legal framework for the recognition of rights and interests of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders such as new applications for native title – including applications for compensation, and the negotiation of Indigenous land use agreements, past and future.
Sources: National Native Title Tribunal, Australian Government Federal Register of Legislation
We take cultural heritage and partnerships with Traditional Owner groups very seriously.
We were the first mining company in Australia to embrace Traditional Owners’ native title rights and interests, and we have a long history of recognising and working to safeguard areas of cultural significance.
In 2019 we endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart – declaring our support for enshrining a First Nations Voice in the Australian constitution and establishing a Makarrata Commission.
The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 protects all Aboriginal heritage sites in Western Australia.
Under Section 18 of the Act, when impact to a site is unavoidable, companies like ours must seek the consent of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. This involves providing information to the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee as to the intended use of the land and sites on the land.
However, before seeking exemption under Section 18, we first look for ways to avoid disturbing cultural heritage sites. This can include redesigning mining projects to avoid a significant site or taking steps to preserve the site in place so it can coexist alongside our activities. But sometimes this is not possible.
Before applying for an exemption under Section 18, we consult with Traditional Owners and seek their consent.
Following Juukan Gorge, we recognise that a review is needed in relation to the management of heritage in Western Australia more broadly, and we will work with Traditional Owners to advocate where relevant for legislative reform.
Indigenous rights are collective rights of distinctive Indigenous societies, recognised and affirmed by Section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982, flowing from their status as the original peoples of Canada. While the Constitution does not define Indigenous rights under Section 35, they can include ownership rights to land, rights to occupy and use lands and resources, self-government rights, and cultural and social rights.
Treaties are agreements made between the Government of Canada, Indigenous groups, provinces and territories, and resource companies that define ongoing rights and obligations of all parties, on areas like include consultation and participation requirements, participation in land use and management, and resource revenue sharing.
Source: Government of Canada website, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
The Minerals Law of Mongolia (Article 42.1) requires minerals exploration and mining license holders to “work in cooperation with the local administrative bodies and establish agreements on issues of environmental protection, mine exploitation and infrastructure development in relation to mine development and job creation.”
In compliance both with national legal requirement and Rio Tinto standards, after years of rigorous consultation with the local stakeholders, in 2015 Oyu Tolgoi signed off the Cooperation Agreement with the local government representatives on how the parties will work together towards the local sustainable development. The Agreement covers the thematic areas such as environment, water and pasture management, social infrastructure, local economic development, education, health and cultural heritage management.
Under the agreement, Oyu Tolgoi will make an annual financial contribution to the Gobi Oyu Development Support Fund (DSF) – jointly established by Oyu Tolgoi and the community in September 2015 and independently managed to support community programmes and projects in the Umnugovi aimag.
Mining projects and operations change the life, livelihoods and landscapes of people connected to the land involved. Through our agreements, we work closely with host communities to ensure they receive a fair share of benefits. A good benefit process accurately determines the rightful recipients and then provides benefits fairly, following terms the recipients themselves help develop.
And by providing benefits, like employment, training, and supporting regional economic development, we can providing lasting value and positive outcomes to the communities where we work. Another way we secure long-term benefits for communities is by creating future income streams, such as endowment funds, foundations and trusts. These are built to suit the specific needs of the local community, and can sometimes align with local and regional development plans too.
Financial payments – for the purposes of compensation, benefits or both – can take many forms. For example, payments may be made based on operational outcomes, such as a percentage of profit, or royalties linked to production.
For example, at our Weipa operations, in Queensland, Australia, we established the Western Cape Communities Coexistence Agreement Charitable Trust, with the majority of annual funding placed in long-term secure investments. And at our Kitimat aluminium smelter in British Columbia, Canada, we partnered with the Haisla Nation to buy and operate the Kitamaat Valley Education Society, which serves other local employers and helps build skills within the local community.
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.
These Cookies are used to provide a better user experience on the site, such as by measuring interactions with particular content or remembering your settings such as language or video playback preferences.
These Cookies allow us to analyse site usage in order to evaluate and improve its performance. They help us know how often you come to our site and when, how long you stay and any performance issues you experience whilst you are on our site.
These Cookies are used by advertising companies to inform and serve personalised ads to your devices based on your interests. These Cookies also facilitate sharing information with social networks or recording your interactions with particular ads.