Despite a softening in the global economy, the first half of fiscal year 2024 has provided strong results for Rio Tinto. Chief Executive, Jakob Stausholm, said: “Our strengthened operations along with stable pricing for our commodities have allowed us to again deliver robust financial results, with underlying EBITDA of $12.1 billion (All prices in USD). We recorded free cash flow of $2.8 billion – as we invested in growth – and underlying earnings of $5.8 billion, after taxes and government royalties of $4.4 billion. Return on capital employed was a healthy 19%.”

Stausholm said Rio Tinto is both consistently very profitable and growing. This is being driven by the disciplined investments it is making to strengthen its operations and to progress major projects for profitable organic growth. “Our strong balance sheet enables us to continue to maintain our practice of a 50% interim payout with a $2.9 billion ordinary dividend, as we continue to invest with discipline to shape Rio Tinto into an even stronger company,” he added.

The company´s deployment of its Safe Production System (SPS) has now reached 26 sites. The half year saw a deepening of the maturity of SPS at existing sites; with three additional sites setting best throughput rates (over a 90-day period). Stausholm said Rio Tinto is on track to deliver its targeted 5 million tonne production uplift at Pilbara Iron Ore in 2024 from SPS, which follows the 5 million tonne achieved in 2023. The company achieved a 10% increase in bauxite production compared with first half 2023, which reflects implementation of SPS, especially at Weipa where higher plant utilisation and feed rates were achieved.

“Our overall copper equivalent production is on track to grow by around 2% this year, and our ambition is to deliver around 3% of compound annual growth from 2024 to 2028 from existing operations and projects,” Stausholm said. “We are at an inflection point in our growth, with a step change from our aluminium business and consistent production at our Pilbara iron ore operations. We have considerable growth in cash flow from the ramp-up of the underground copper mine at Oyu Tolgoi, and more value to come as our Simandou investment and Rincon lithium project proceed at pace,” he added.

Rio Tinto affirmed its commitment to reaching net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050 and has set ambitious interim targets relative to its 2018 equity emissions baseline: to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2030. The company´s capital expenditure on decarbonisation projects in 2024 first half was $69 million.