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
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
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
We know that the way we produce these products is just as important as the minerals and metals themselves. We recognise the responsibility we are entrusted with and see ourselves as long-term stewards of natural resources, including land and water, and the ecosystems they support.
Our commitment to understanding and mitigating the risks and impacts of our operations extends from the very beginning of an operation’s life to beyond closure. More immediately, we are accelerating action to reduce our carbon emissions and investing to help reduce emissions generated by the use of our products. We have an important role to play.
Wherever we work, we continually partner with Indigenous and local communities to improve our natural resource management practices to minimise our impact on the environment. For example, every year, at the Diavik Diamond Mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, we bring together biologists and members from the local Indigenous communities to sample the water and assess the fish. And in Australia, at our Weipa operations in Far North Queensland, we are working with Traditional Owners and Local Aboriginal People to rehabilitate land using ancient seeds to make sure the right plants are grown in the right areas. These plants will be used for medicine, food and ceremonies.
At our managed operations, we apply internal standards and practices that are in line with – and sometimes go beyond – international and local regulations and permits, as well as the requirements of relevant industry associations such as the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). Our standards clearly articulate what we require from our sites in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services management, air and water emissions control and waste management. We have assurance processes against these standards, local regulations and international certifications such as Copper Mark and Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI).
We know we have more to do, but from the Pilbara in Western Australia, to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to Saguenay-Lac-St. Jean, in Quebec, Canada, we are committed to protecting the land, water, ecosystems and environments where we explore and operate.
We often work in partnership to learn from others and continually improve our processes and techniques. By combining our knowledge, we ensure that our partnerships have lasting, measurable impact.
We engage with global organisations – like the Proteus Partnership, a collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre – to improve the way we avoid harming and mitigate risks to sensitive species and ecosystems. We also work with local organisations on mutually beneficial projects. For example, in Madagascar, we partnered with Asity Madagascar who work with Oxford Brookes University, in the UK, to establish the Ampasy Research Station, which acts as a community hub to support forest conservation, sustainable farming practices and ecotourism around the Tsitongambarika Forest, near our QIT Madagascar Minerals operation.
At Richards Bay Minerals, our operation in South Africa, we have been pioneering sand dune rehabilitation for the past 40 years – testing, learning and improving as we go. Researchers of this work have published their learnings in more than 60 international scientific journal articles, allowing others to benefit from our experience.
We are members of the ICMM: its Principles and their associated Performance Expectations provide member companies like ours with a framework for performance, particularly:
We are also founders and active members of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), and were the first aluminium producer to have our product ASI-certified as responsible throughout its lifecycle. We continue to actively participate in the review of the ASI standard on biodiversity and ecosystem services, contributing our knowledge and experience gained on the ground at our operations around the world.
ASI certification was made possible with collaboration across the aluminium value chain, including Nespresso, Flora & Fauna International (FFI), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
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In a cyclone-prone area these wetlands serve as important flood attenuation systems. By closure, the wetlands’ total area will be the size of 300 football (soccer) fields, providing a home for birds, fish and other animals – like crocodiles – and supplying the local Antanosy people with plants used for crafts, fishing baskets and houses.
We report externally on our greenhouse gas and other air emissions, waste and tailings, along with our Group water stewardship practices. We are among the most transparent in our industry regarding our water risks, and we are focused on increasingly demonstrating our environmental performance through data and technology.
Our position on Professor Graeme Samuel’s review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Pioneering a new source of a critical mineral
Meet one of the engineers helping to rethink how we manage mining tailings
We’re working with community seed collectors to improve how we restore land after mining
As a forum member of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), we are preparing to pilot the prototype risk management and opportunity disclosure framework at our Simandou site in Guinea.
This framework will help businesses with the transparency and management of nature-related risks. We continue to provide feedback on the framework through our membership of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). We are also refreshing our approach to managing nature-related risk and developing a pathway to increasing our disclosures in line with TNFD.
We have also strengthened our approach to environmental risk management by developing a shared language and a standardised set of controls, and ensuring we are assessing the full breadth of potential environmental impacts in a consistent way across our business.
As part of the Health, Safety, Environment and Security Transformation Programme, we have continued to develop and implement the environment modules, with the “air” and “water” modules in use at our Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean operations in Quebec, Canada. The programme will improve how we manage our environmental data, allowing us to use this information to support our decision making, meet the growing demand for transparency, and set meaningful targets for continuous improvement in environmental performance.
We have also worked to ensure that environmental management is consistent and embedded across all processes in our business and through the lifecycle of our operations. To support our assets in managing their environmental performance, we incorporated environmental risk ownership and performance measurement into the safety maturity model (SMM), which focuses on leadership behaviours in the field and critical risk management.
With our product groups, Health and Commercial teams, we started developing a roadmap for future-proofing our product stewardship to ensure that we continue to deliver products that safeguard the environment, health and safety of our communities and end-consumers.
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.
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