This article is about the Rio Tinto mining company. For the river in Spain, please see Tinto river
| Rio Tinto Logo | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1873 |
| Headquarters | London & Melbourne |
Key people | Paul Skinner, Chairman R. Leigh Clifford, CEO Guy Elliot, Finance Director |
| Products | Coal Iron Copper Uranium Gold |
| Revenue | $11.344 billion (2004) |
Number of employees | ? |
| Website | www.riotinto.com |
Rio Tinto is a multinational mining and resources group formed in 1995 from the merger of British-based miner RTZ and the Australian CRA. The two companies remain separate corporate entities, the renamed Rio Tinto Limited listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and Rio Tinto plc on the London Stock Exchange, but are managed as a single economic unit by a unified board, with a share in either company entitling the owner to the same voting rights and dividend payouts. RTZ shareholders made up 76.7% of the new unified entity, which is primarily managed from London. The company is named after an ancient copper mine at Rio Tinto, Spain, which supplied the Roman Empire with copper.
Its current chief executive is Leigh Clifford and the company board is chaired by Paul Skinner.
The group is one of the world's largest mining companies, with a before-tax adjusted profit of approximately 2.1 billion US dollars in 2003 on consolidated turnover of 9.2 billion USD.
The group produces a number of mineral commodities in its various divisions:
Rio Tinto wholly owns Hamersley Iron, which owns and operates a number of mines in Western Australia either wholly or jointly with several partners. Its partners on some projects notably include several Chinese corporations.
Rio Tinto also owns 53% of Robe River Iron Associates and 59% of the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
Iron made up 18% of revenue in 2003 and was responsible for 36% of the group's profit. It is the world's second-largest producer of iron ore.
Energy
The company's energy group includes coal mining operations in Australia and North America, and more controversially Energy Resources Australia, which conducts uranium mining near the Kakadu National Park. This group contributed 20% of turnover and 11% of profit.
Industrial minerals
The Industrial minerals group extracts talc, titanium dioxide, salt, borax, amongst several others. These operations are scattered across Australia, the United States, and Africa. This group contributed 15% of turnover and 11% of earnings.
Rio Tinto owns Comalco, which mines bauxite (aluminium ore) in Weipa, Queensland, and operates three aluminium smelters in Australia, and one in Europe. The group also operates the Anglesey Aluminium smelter at Holyhead in the United Kingdom. This group contributed 16% of turnover and 14% of adjusted earnings.
The company's diamond operations are best known for the pink diamonds produced at the Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia, which produces over 90% of the world's supply of these gems and around 30% of the world's annual production of all natural diamonds. The company also owns 60% of and manages the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada's Northwest Territories, and the Murowa diamond mine in Zimbabwe.
The copper division not only produces copper itself, but a considerable quantity of gold from its mines in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Chile, and the United States, some as part of joint ventures. The copper group was responsible for 23% of turnover (of which 55% was copper and most of the remainder gold) and 32% of profits in 2003.
The company also has a technology group conducting research and development, notably including the HiSmelt iron smelting process, and an exploration group.