The way we do business is increasingly important to our stakeholders who want assurance that we not only conduct ourselves responsibly and ethically, but also that suppliers and customers across our value chain do so as well. We look for opportunities to improve transparency about our business practices and work to ensure our people understand and fulfil their obligations. We participate in assessment and accreditation programs to verify our performance and identify opportunities for improvement so our stakeholders can have confidence in the way we work.

Our values

Care

Care about the safety of ourselves and others, creating an environment of trust, and the impact we have on our colleagues and others, communities and the environment.

Courage

Courage to show vulnerability, speak up and challenge when we can do better, and take ownership of our actions and outcomes to drive performance.

Curiosity

Curiosity to learn and grow in our fields of expertise, look for opportunities to solve problems with everyday innovation, and be open to different perspectives.

Our code of conduct

We expect our people to uphold the highest standard of integrity, act ethically and do the right thing. This expectation extends to our partners, that they behave and operate in a way that aligns with our values and priorities.

The Way We Work
The Way We Work
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8.32 MB
The Way We Work [AF]
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9.82 MB
The Way We Work [ES]
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10.13 MB
The Way We Work [FR]
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10.79 MB
The Way We Work [IS]
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9.49 MB
The Way We Work [JP]
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4.35 MB
The Way We Work [KO]
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3.23 MB
The Way We Work [MG]
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11.06 MB
The Way We Work [MN]
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3.03 MB
The Way We Work [NL]
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9.76 MB
The Way We Work [PT]
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9.97 MB
The Way We Work [RU]
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10.1 MB
The Way We Work [SR]
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10.17 MB
The Way We Work [ZH]
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3.03 MB
The Way We Work [ZU]
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9.63 MB

Our code of conduct, The Way We Work, sets clear expectations on how we should conduct our business, and ourselves, no matter where we work or where we are from. We want everyone to have the courage to speak up when something is not right, to show integrity and take decisive action where needed. This is not always easy but being courageous means doing it anyway. 

Our Code applies to everyone who works for Rio Tinto, including our Board, Executive Committee, employees and third parties working under the direction of Rio Tinto.

Fostering an ethical culture

We know that our reputation to act ethically and with integrity depends on the actions and decisions we make each day across our business. We empower and equip our people to seek guidance when faced with an ethical or business integrity dilemma – both to prevent incidents from occurring, and to protect them and others from harm.

Our ethical decision-making model helps us to pause, reflect and consider our choices and their potential impact when making decisions.

Diagram: Living our values of Care, Courage and Curiosity in every decision we make

Ethics and Compliance program

Our Ethics and Compliance program, which is managed by our Ethics and Compliance function independently from our business operations, is designed to identify and actively support in management of our compliance risks and regulatory requirements in the jurisdictions where we operate. We continuously evolve the program to align to the current risk profile of our assets and business activities and to enable timely and targeted intervention to prevent issues from occurring.

Our Business Integrity Standard and Procedure require our employees, core contractors and any third parties acting for, or on behalf of, the company to not commit, authorise or be involved in bribery, corruption, fraud or other economic crimes. We also have clear rules regarding third-party benefits, managing conflicts of interest, facilitation payments, sponsorships, donations and community support, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, and engaging third parties.

Partnering to strengthen business ethics in Mongolia

Supporting the country’s continued growth and development through tackling corruption is a significant priority in Mongolia. As the largest international investor in Mongolia, we are committed to supporting the country’s efforts to promote transparency, business ethics, and corporate governance.

We have partnered with the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) and Transparency International, to establish a dedicated Business Integrity Centre. The Centre offers professional training, resources, and advisory support to approximately 5,000 Mongolian companies to embed global standards in ethical business practice. By working in partnership, the Centre is helping to build the capacity of Mongolia’s businesses and enhance the country’s position as an attractive location for international investment.

The Centre has provided business ethics and compliance training to around 110 private-sector employees from 30 companies across various industries.

Ethics and Compliance program – 2025 year in review

Business integrity is core to how we build trust with our stakeholders and the foundation of our ability to run our operations and maintain an ethical culture. Our Ethics and Compliance program is continuously evolving to align with leading industry practice, the regulatory landscape and specific business integrity risks we face across the countries where we operate.

We have continued to develop our Ethics and Compliance program to align with our risk profile and to changes in the regulatory landscape across the countries where we operate. During the year, we undertook a maturity assessment of our program, which concluded our program has a higher level of maturity than benchmarked peers.

In 2025, we:

  • Continued to enhance our compliance monitoring framework and are in the process of implementing an analytics-driven compliance monitoring solution to complement our existing program.
  • Undertook ethical perception assessments across selected sites to better understand the ethical culture and inform compliance priorities.
  • Further embedded our Compliance Champions program, developing and leveraging a site-level network of employees to promote an ethical culture.
  • Simplified our Data Privacy Compliance Program. This included integrating our Privacy Threshold Assessment and Privacy Impact Assessment into a single Privacy Risk Review, while continuing to ensure compliance with new and changing privacy legislation across the jurisdictions where we operate.
  • Integrated Data Governance (previously within Information Systems & Technology) with Data Privacy, focusing on a business-oriented operating model and framework.
  • Launched our new Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) system that introduces automated review and clearance of low-risk third parties, allowing analysts to spend more time assessing higher-risk third parties. For more information, see our 2025 Sustainability Fact Book.
  • Issued a new Sanctions & Trade Control Standard and continued to strengthen our Sanctions Compliance Program through enhanced third-party sanctions screening processes, deep dive reviews across parts of the business with higher sanctions exposure, and increased employee training.
  • Issued a new myVoice Standard covering our whistleblower and confidential reporting program.

Code of Conduct and annual training

Our reputation as a business that operates with high levels of integrity depends on the actions we take and decisions we make each day. We expect our people to uphold the highest standard of integrity, act ethically, and do the right thing for each other, for our partners and for the communities where we operate.

Transparent, values-driven performance culture

We empower our people to seek guidance when faced with ethical or business dilemmas – both to prevent incidents from occurring, and to protect them and others from harm. The way we treat our people, our partners, the environment and the communities where we work, and how we conduct business, is what makes us a responsible partner of choice. 

Our employees are required to complete annual mandatory training on The Way We Work, our Code of Conduct. In 2025, we tailored the training to employee needs through adaptive learning. This training sets the foundation for how we work, guiding ethical decision making and reflecting the safe and respectful environment we want to achieve for our people. The annual training incorporates topics across all areas of the Code and is designed to help employees and contractors understand what’s expected of them, providing guidance for making decisions consistent with our values of care, courage and curiosity.

The 2025 annual online training was released in September and has been completed by 21,693 employees. The offline version has been completed by 17,182 employees. Our Executive Committee attended an immersive face-to-face session on the Code.

In addition to annual mandatory Code training, the Ethics and Compliance team delivered additional risk-based face-to-face training on anti-bribery and corruption, data privacy, anti-trust and trade sanctions. A total of 7,519 employees received this training in 2025.  We also provided business integrity training to our third parties on a risk basis.

 
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myVoice

myVoice is our whistleblower and confidential reporting program.

A respectful and inclusive workplace, with a strong ethical culture that reflects our values, must include a safe space where individuals can speak up with confidence and without fear of retaliation.

A strong culture of speaking up enables us to identify and address potential issues swiftly, respond appropriately, minimise risk, and ensure care for our people and the communities where we operate.

myVoice is available to anyone who has concerns or information relating to misconduct or improper circumstances or behaviours connected to Rio Tinto.

These can include concerns about business activities, or behaviours of individuals, including suspicion of violations of our Code of Conduct, policies and standards, human rights, safety, environment, financial reporting, fraud or other business integrity issues.

myVoice lets you choose to submit a report confidentially or anonymously. It is important to know that the content discussed and the right to anonymity may be subject to local laws.

The number of reports received to myVoice1  continues to increase yearly, with 1,9422  reports in 2025 (2024: 1,920). The reporting rate per 100 headcount was 3.4 in 2025 (2024: 3.4), with 51% (2024: 54%) of reporters willing to reveal their identity. The percentage of anonymous reporters has increased each year since 2022. Of the 608 reports investigated and closed in the year, the substantiation rate was 43% (2024: 44% of 642)3.

1,942

reports in 2025

69%

of reports in 2025 related to personnel matters

3.4

case rate per 100 headcount in 2025

51%


of reporters willing to reveal their identity

43%

of cases substantiated from 608 reports that were investigated and closed in 2025

Addressing harmful behaviours

We remain committed to eliminating harmful behaviours. Behaviours leading to harm are encouraged to be reported to myVoice. In 2025, we substantiated 88 allegations4 of bullying and harassment, 66 allegations of sexual misconduct, and 17 allegations of discrimination.

Disciplinary outcomes from myVoice reports closed in 2025 resulted in 126 employees leaving the business (dismissal or resignation), 85 of these related to harmful behaviours.

88

bullying and harassment allegations

66

sexual misconduct allegations

17

discrimination allegations

  • More information on myVoice

  • Footnotes

    1 Each myVoice report may include multiple allegations with each individually allocated an issue type with up to 5 issue types available per report. Allocated issue types are defined for internal reporting purposes and may not correlate to any legislative definition.

    2 Includes 86 reports related to Arcadium Lithium, 27 received directly to myVoice platform following re-branding and formal launch of the Code of Conduct on 30 September 2025.

    3 The number of reports substantiated as a percentage of total reports investigated by Ethics & Compliance. A report is substantiated if one or more of the allegations contained in the report is substantiated.

    4A “substantiated allegation” means our internal investigation process found a breach of a Rio Tinto policy, The Way We Work, or a related Standard, not an assessment of breach of any applicable civil or criminal law.

Care Hub

This year we continued to embed the Care Hub, which is a confidential service to access support, and explore non-investigative resolution options. Care Hub helps manage psychosocial risks, address systemic hazards and prevent harm. The service is available to anyone directly or indirectly impacted by disrespectful or harmful workplace behaviours, such as bullying, harassment, sexual harm, racism and discrimination. Care Hub supported 702 individuals in 2025 (up from 568 in 2024). 208 non-investigative resolutions were facilitated during the year, an increase from 167 in 2024.

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Everyday Respect

Creating a workplace where everyone, everywhere feels safe, respected and empowered to bring their best, every day. 
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Our approach to confidentiality terms for impacted people

We strongly support open dialogue about workplace experiences and recognise the importance of employees being able to share their experiences.
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Sustainability reporting

We have a responsibility to extract the full value from the minerals and materials we produce in the safest and most sustainable way possible.

Ethics and compliance standards

myVoice Standard
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186 KB
myVoice Standard [FR]
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203 KB
Data Privacy Standard
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236 KB
Business Integrity Standard
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406 KB
Sanctions and Trade Controls Standard
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613 KB
Employees carrying out RDA works at Gove Operations

Transparency

We believe that greater transparency and accountability helps build trust and encourages sustainable business practices across our industry
Weipa operations, Australia

Industry association disclosure

Our position on the role of industry associations
QNS&L rail line, IOC

Value chain 

As consumers become more mindful of the sustainability of the products they choose, they want reassurance that the materials consumed reflect responsible practices throughout the value chain
Power Station, Isle Maligne, IOC

Cyber security

As cyber attacks become more prevalent, we are investing significantly in enhancing our cyber security