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
Reduction by 2025
Reduction by 2030
By 2050
We have put the net zero transition at the heart of our business strategy: combining investments in commodities that enable the energy transition with actions to decarbonise our operations and value chains.
Our approach to climate change
We engage with investor and civil society organisations on our approach to climate advocacy to support the decarbonisation of our operations.
To support this approach, and in line with our commitment to transparency, we are publishing a series of briefing papers on our key emission sources, efforts to decarbonise specific assets and how policy-settings can support our Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction targets which are aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Due to the scale of our mining operations and processing activities we have significant Scope 1 and 2 emissions. And we know we must address this with urgency to be part of the solution. Between now and 2030, we must switch to renewables at scale and at pace, electrify everything we can, work across our entire value chain, accelerate the development of new technology, and address emissions related to process heat at our alumina refineries and minerals processing operations.
To strengthen our alignment with the Paris Agreement and our long-term commitment of achieving net zero emissions by 2050:
In 2022 we established six abatement programmes to focus on the decarbonisation challenge across our business: repowering our Pacific Aluminium operations, renewables, aluminium anodes – ELYSISTM, alumina process heat, minerals processing and diesel transition.
We are also increasing our investment in our Nature-based Solutions team and now expect high integrity offsets to play a greater role in our decarbonisation strategy.
In contrast to many of our peers, about 80% of our emissions are driven by processing and producing metals and minerals, which are high temperature, hard-to-abate activities. The remaining 20% are from our mining operations.
Our six abatement programmes are focused on the most significant sources of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions: electricity at 41% (purchased and generated), carbon anodes in aluminium smelting and reductants in titanium dioxide furnaces at 21%, fossil fuels for heat at our processing plants and alumina refineries at 20%, and diesel consumption in our mining equipment and rail fleet at 13%.
So far, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 7% below our 2018 baseline. This is primarily the result of switching to renewable power at Kennecott and Escondida in prior years, as well as lower than planned production from the Kitimat and Boyne aluminium smelters in 2022.
We purchased renewable electricity certificates at Kennecott in the US and switched to renewable electricity contracts at the Escondida mine in Chile (managed by BHP; Rio Tinto owns 30%).
We also took the following specific actions.
We did not advance the implementation of our abatement projects as fast as we would have liked last year. Challenges have included late delivery of equipment, resourcing constraints impacting study progress, construction and commissioning and project readiness.
We still have much work to do to progress our abatement projects and we continue to aim for our 2025 target to maintain focus within the organisation and drive action across our portfolio.
Sun and wind will power one of the world's largest microgrids
A new pilot program will help us find out
Investing in conservation will accelerate decarbonisation
We need to tackle our Scope 3 emissions, as we fully appreciate that to thrive in the long term we need to be part of net zero value chains. We are working closely with our customers and others to develop more secure and sustainable value chains and accelerate the development of cleaner production pathways for our products.
To work with our customers to tackle full value chain emissions:
Our approach to addressing Scope 3 emissions is to engage with our customers on climate change and work with them to develop and scale up technologies to decarbonise steel and aluminium production.
We have limited control over our Scope 3 emissions, as these come primarily from our customers in Asia while processing our iron ore into steel and bauxite into aluminium. While we have a key role to play, we do not set an overall Scope 3 emissions target as we have limited ability to directly influence the production processes of our customers – or theirs. In addition, because we do not extract fossil fuels, we do not have the option to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by shifting our portfolio away from fossil fuels.
The best way we can tackle Scope 3 emissions is to work through partnerships – with customers, governments, universities and others – to develop the technologies needed to produce low-carbon metals and minerals and help shape demand for low carbon metals and minerals.
In 2022, we increased our engagement with nearly all our direct iron ore and bauxite customers and worked with them to optimise their current operations and to develop the low-carbon technologies needed to reduce emissions across our value chains.
Tackling a global challenge
Revolutionising the way aluminium is made
Partnering with customers and suppliers to tackle industry challenges
The energy transition will create significant additional demand for our commodities, including copper, lithium and aluminium. We aim to grow in these commodities as well as in the production of high-quality iron ore. This iron ore will support the production of low-carbon steel required for infrastructure for the energy transition and ongoing urbanisation.
To capture new growth opportunities in materials with strong low carbon transition-related demand:
We are developing a pipeline of growth options leveraged towards the energy transition while maintaining our absolute commitment to capital discipline.
Meeting the incremental demand of the energy transition, and ensuring local supplies of critical minerals globally, deepens our relevance to the world and ensures our long-term profitability.
Our Kennecott copper mine is extracting a rare, valuable metal from waste
The role of technological breakthroughs and the circular economy
We know we can’t tackle the climate change challenge alone. That’s why we’re proud to partner with BHP and Vale – together with Austmine – to launch the Charge On Innovation Challenge. Our goal? To cut diesel use and emissions across our industry by finding a way to electrify mining truck fleets.
Innovation is the key to decarbonisation, and we expect the Challenge will deliver exciting new concepts that could drive huge long-term benefits for our industry and the environment.”
Mark Davies, Group Executive Safety, Technical and Projects
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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).
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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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