Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said: “We built further momentum in our Pilbara iron ore business for the quarter, and now expect to deliver shipments in the upper half of our guidance range for the year. The ramp-up of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine progressed ahead of plan, and we remain on track to more than triple its copper production by the end of the decade. Production downgrades during the quarter highlight that we still have much more to do elsewhere, as we roll out the Safe Production System to create stability and achieve excellence across our global portfolio.
“We continued to take disciplined measures to grow in the materials the world needs for the energy transition, with investments to expand our low carbon aluminium production and increase our underground copper production at Kennecott.
“We are taking practical steps and making investments to decarbonise, being the first to convert an open pit mine to renewable diesel at our Boron operations, signing a memorandum of understanding with Baowu to explore decarbonisation of the steel value chain and delivering first production from our ground-breaking BlueSmelting demonstration plant at Sorel-Tracy in Quebec in July.”
Production* |
Quarter 2 |
vs Q2 |
vs Q1 |
H1 |
vs HY |
||||
Pilbara iron ore shipments (100% basis) (Mt) |
79.1 |
-1% |
-4% |
161.7 |
+7% |
||||
Pilbara iron ore production (100% basis) (Mt) |
81.3 |
+3% |
+2% |
160.5 |
+7% |
||||
Bauxite (Mt) |
13.5 |
-5% |
+12% |
25.6 |
-8% |
||||
Aluminium (kt) |
814 |
+11% |
+4% |
1,598 |
+9% |
||||
Mined Copper (consolidated basis) (kt) |
145 |
-1% |
0% |
290 |
-1% |
||||
Titanium dioxide slag (kt) |
303 |
+4% |
+6% |
589 |
+4% |
||||
IOC** iron ore pellets & concentrate (Mt) |
2.1 |
-21% |
-18% |
4.6 |