Rio Tinto Group

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Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto is a multinational mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
and resources group founded originally in 1873. It is the third-largest coal mining company in the world as of late 2008.

Since 1995, Rio Tinto has been a dual-listed company

Dual-listed company

A dual-listed company or DLC is a corporate structure which involves two listed companies with different sets of shareholders sharing ownership of one set of operational businesses....
. Rio Tinto Limited, formerly known as Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, with Rio Tinto plc (formerly RTZ or Rio Tinto Zinc) listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange or LSE is a stock exchange located in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1801, it is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, with many overseas listings as well as British companies....
as well as New York Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange

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Encyclopedia

Rio Tinto is a multinational mining

Mining

Dual-listed company

London Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange based in New York City, New York. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by United States dollar market capitalization of its listed companies' Security ....
(under ticker RTP). The two companies 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 percent of the new unified entity, which is primarily managed from London.

History

Formation

Rio Tinto River Carolstoker Nasa Ames Research Center

Since antiquity, a site along the Rio Tinto river in the Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is a country in the Spanish State. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Spain....
n Province of Huelva

Huelva (province)

Huelva is a Provinces of Spain of southern Spain, in the western part of the Autonomous communities of Spain of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz , Seville , and C?diz , and the Atlantic Ocean....
(Spain

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
) has been mined for copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, silver

Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
, gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
, and other minerals. Approximately 3,000 BCE, Iberians

Iberians

The Iberians were a set of peoples that Ancient Greece and ancient Rome sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC....
and Tartessians

Tartessos

Tartessos was a harbor city and its surrounding culture on the south coast of the Iberian peninsula , at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river. It was mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo in Pliny's Natural History....
began mining the site, followed by the Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
ns, Greeks

Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Visigoths, and Moors

Moors

In the Spanish language, the term for Moors is Moro; in Portuguese language the word is mouro. There seems to have been some confusion about the relationship of the word moro/mouro to the word moreno , both from Greek language ma?ros, i.e....
. After a period of abandonment, the mines were rediscovered in 1556 and the Spanish government began operating them once again in 1724. However, Spain's mining operations there were inefficient, and the government itself otherwise distracted by political and financial crises, leading the government to sell the mines (at a price later determined to be well below actual value) in 1873.

The purchasers of the mine were led by Hugh Matheson

Hugh Matheson (industrialist)

Hugh Matheson was a 19th-century British industrialist. In 1873, he assembled a group of financiers to purchase the Rio Tinto mine from the government of Spain, establishing the mining company that is today the Rio Tinto Group....
's Matheson and Company, which ultimately formed a syndicate consisting of Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft is an international Universal bank with a broad private clients franchise, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
(56% ownership), Matheson (24%), and railway firm Clark, Punchard and Company (20%). At an auction held by the Spanish government for sale of the mine on February 17, 1873, the group won with a bid 3,680,000 pounds sterling

Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
(92,800,000 Spanish peseta

Spanish peseta

The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . It was subdivided into 100 c?ntimos or, informally, 4 reales, but these subunits were completely out of circulation by the 1970s....
s). The bid also specified that Spain permanently relinquish any right to claim royalties

Royalty

Royalty may refer to:* Royal family , or one or more of its members* Royalties, the payment made for a concession of commercial value or to the owner of a copyright, patent, trademark or know-how for its use...
on the mine's production. Following purchase of the mine, the syndicate launched the Rio Tinto Company, registering it on March 29, 1873.

Operating History

Following their purchase of the Rio Tinto mine in 1871, the new ownership constructed a number of new processing facilities, innovated new mining techniques, and expanded mining activities. From 1877 through 1891, the Rio Tinto mine was the world's leading producer of copper. The company also became the globe's top producer of sulphur and a leading supplier of pyrite

Pyrite

The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula ironsulfur2. This mineral's metallic Lustre and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold due to its resemblance to gold....
s.

From 1871 thru 1925, the company was inwardly focused on fully exploiting the Rio Tinto mine, with little attention paid to expansion or exploration activities outside of Spain. The company enjoyed strong financial success until 1914, cooperating with other pyrite producers

Cartel

A cartel is a formal agreement among firms. It is a formal organization of producers that agree to coordinate prices and production. Cartels usually occur in an Oligopoly, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products....
to control market prices. However, World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
and its aftermath effectively eliminated the United States as a viable market for European pyrites, leading to a decline in the firm's prominence.

The company's failure to diversify during this period led to the slow decline fo the company among the ranks of international mining firms. However, this changed in 1925, when Sir Auckland Geddes

Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes

Auckland Campbell-Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes, Order of St Michael and St George, Order of the Bath was a United Kingdom politician and diplomat....
succeeded Lord Alfred Milner

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, Order of the Garter, Order of the Bath, Order of St Michael and St George, Privy Council of the United Kingdom was a controversial German-born United Kingdom statesman and colonial administrator....
as chairman. Geddes and the new management team he installed focused on diversification

Diversification

Diversification may refer to:* Diversification involves spreading investments* Diversification is a corporate strategy to increase market penetration...
of the company's investments and operations and reformation of marketing strategy. Geddes led the company into a series of joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. The parties agree to create a new entity by both contributing Ownership equity, and they then share in the revenues, expenses, and control of the enterprise....
s with customers in the development of new technologies, as well as exploration and develoment of new mines outside of Spain.

Perhaps most significant was the company's investment in copper mines in Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia was the name adopted when the formerly British colonies of Southern Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965. The name was also used with the establishment of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979....
, which it eventually consolidated into the Rhokana Corporation. These and later efforts at diversification eventually allowed the company to divest from the Rio Tinto mine in Spain. By the 1950s, Franco's nationalistic government had made it increasingly difficult to exploit Spanish resources for the profit of foreigners. Rio Tinto Company, supported by its international investments, was able to divest two-thirds of its Spanish operations in 1954 and the remainder over the following years.

Major Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions

Like many major mining companies, the Rio Tinto Group has historically grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions.

The company's first major acquisition occurred in 1929, when the company issued stock for the purpose of raising 2.5 million pounds to invest in Rhodesian copper mining companies, which was fully invested by the end of 1930. The Rio Tinto company consolidated its holdings of these various firms under the Rhokana Corporation by forcing the various companies to merge.

Rio Tinto's investment in Rhodesian copper mines did much to support the company through troubled times at its Spanish Rio Tinto operations spanning the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, and Franco's nationalistic policies. In 1950s the political situation made it increasingly difficult for mostly British and French owners to extract profits from Sapnish operations, and the company decided to dispose of the mines from which it took its name. Thus, in 1954 Rio Tinto Company sold two thirds of its stake in the Rio Tinto mines, disposing of the rest over the following years. The sale of the mines financed extensive exploration activities over the following decade.

The company's exploration activities presented the company with an abundance of opportunities; however it lacked sufficient capital and operating revenue to exploit those opportunities. This situation precipitated the next, and perhaps most significant, merger in the company's history. In 1962 Rio Tinto Company merged with the Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n firm Consolidated Zinc to form the Rio Tinto - Zinc Corporation ("RTZ") and its main subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia ("CRA"). The merger provided Rio Tinto the ability to exploit its new-found opportunities, and gave Consolidated Zinc a much larger asset base.

Major acquisitions around this time included U.S. Borax, a major producer of borax

Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
, bought in 1968, Kennecott Utah Copper

Kennecott Utah Copper

Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation , a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in Magna, Utah, Utah, United States....
and BP Australia's coal assets which were bought from British Petroleum in 1989 and a 70.7% interest in the New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is Australia's oldest and most populous States and territories of Australia, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria and south of Queensland....
operations of Coal & Allied Industries also in 1989. In 1993 the Company acquired Nerco and also the United States coal mining businesses of Cordero

Cordero

Cordero is a Spanish and Italian surname. The name refers to:...
.

RTZ and CRA were separately managed and operated, with CRA focusing on opportunities within Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes ....
and RTZ taking the rest of the world. However, the companies continued to trade separately, and RTZ's ownership of CRA dipped below 50% by 1986. Strategic needs of the two companies eventually led to conflicts of interest regarding new mining opportunities, and shareholders of both companies determined a merger was in their mutual best interest. In 1995, the companies merged into a dual listed company, in which management was consolidated into a single entity and share holder interests were aligned and equivalent, although maintained as shares in separately named entities. (For more detail, see Corporate Status section below.) The merger also precipitated a name change; after two years as RTZ-CRA, RTZ became Rio Tinto plc and CRA became Rio Tinto Limited, referred to collectively as Rio Tinto Group or simply Rio Tinto.

In 2000 Rio Tinto acquired Northern Limited, an Australian company with iron ore

Iron ore

Iron ores are Rock and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red....
and uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
mines, for $2.8 billion. The takeover was partially motivated as a response to Northern Limited's 1999 bid to have Rio Tinto's Pilbara railway network declared open access

Open Access (Infrastructure)

Open access applies to infrastructure such as railways being available to clients other than the owners, for a fee. Most railways are inherently open access and operate as common carriers....
. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is an independent authority of the government of Australia. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trade Practices Commission and the Prices Surveillance Authority to administer the Trade Practices Act 1974 ....
regulatory body approved the acquisition in August 2000, and the purchase was completed in October of the same year. That year Rio Tinto also bought North Ltd and Ashton Mining for 4 billion USD, adding additional resources in aluminum, iron ore, diamonds, and coal. In 2001 it bought (under Coal and Allied Industries) the Australian coal businesses of the Peabody Group.

Then on 14 November 2007 Rio Tinto bought Canadian

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
aluminium company Alcan Inc. for $38.1 billion. Alcan's Chief Executive Dick Evans leads the new division, which has been renamed Rio Tinto Alcan and its headquarters situated in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal, or Montr?al, is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada of Quebec and the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population....
.

Recent Developments

On 8 November 2007, rival mining company BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is the world's largest mining company. It was created in 2001 by the merger of Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Company and the United Kingdom's Billiton, which had a Dutch and South African background....
announced it was seeking to purchase Rio Tinto Group in an all share deal. This offer was rejected by the board of Rio Tinto as it "significantly undervalues" the company. Another attempt by BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is the world's largest mining company. It was created in 2001 by the merger of Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Company and the United Kingdom's Billiton, which had a Dutch and South African background....
for a hostile takeover valuing it at US$147 billion was rejected on the same grounds. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government-owned resources group Chinalco and the US aluminum producer Alcoa purchased 12 per cent of Rio Tinto's London-listed shares in a move that could block or severely complicate BHP Billiton's plans to buy its rival. In the six months from November 1 2007 to April 1 2008, Rio Tinto's daily closing NYSE share price increased 16% from US$361 to $420, soaring and dipping along the way between $478 and $331. The bid was withdrawn on November 25, 2008 due to market instability from the global recession

Global financial crisis of 2008–2009

File:EESA128.pngThe global financial crisis of 2008?2009 emerged in September 2008 with the failure, merger, or conservatorship of several large United States-based financial firms and spread with the insolvency of additional companies, governments in Europe, recession, and declining stock market prices around the globe....
.

In response to the global financial crisis and mounting debt problems, on December 10, 2008 Rio Tinto announced the cut of 14,000 jobs (5,500 employees and 8,500 contractors), a reduction in exploration budgets, and the closure of one of its two London offices.

In February 2009 Rio Tinto confirmed that it was in talks for Chinalco for them to take a significant stake in the Company.

Corporate Status

Organization

Rio Tinto is primarily organized into six operational businesses, divided by product type. Copper mining activities are carried out under the main Rio Tinto entity, while other activities are divided among the following subsidiaries:

Rio Tinto Alcan - aluminium
Rio Tinto Energy - coal and uranium
Rio Tinto Diamonds - diamonds
Rio Tinto Minerals - industrial minerals such as borax
Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
, talc
Talc

Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Hydrogen2Magnesium34 or Magnesium3Silicon4Oxygen102....
, salt
Salt

A salt, in chemistry, is defined as the product formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and base . Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically electric charge ....
and titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula titaniumoxygen2....
Rio Tinto Iron Ore - iron ore

These operating groups are supported by separate divisions providing exploration and technology services.

Subsidiaries

Rio Tinto Group has a complex structure of partly and wholly owned subsidiaries, each held within one of the six operational groups described above. Major subsidiaries include:

Major Rio Tinto Subsidiaries
Subsidiary	Ownership Stake	Main Product	Location
Anglesey Aluminium Anglesey Aluminium Anglesey Aluminium Metal Ltd. is a joint venture between Rio Tinto Group, Kaiser Aluminium and Chemical Corporation.Its aluminium smelter, located on the outskirts of Holyhead, is one of the largest employers in North Wales, with 540 staff members, and began to produce aluminium in 1971....	51%	Aluminium smelting Smelting Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores....	United Kingdom (Wales)
Argyle Diamonds Argyle diamond mine The Argyle diamond mine is a diamond mining located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Argyle mine is the largest diamond producer in the world by volume, although due to the low proportion of gem-quality diamonds, is not the leader by value....	100%	Diamonds	Australia (Western Australia)
Bell Bay Smelter	100%	Aluminium smelting	Australia (Tasmania)
Bougainville Copper Bougainville Copper Bougainville Copper Ltd is an Australian copper, gold, and silver mining company that operates the Panguna open-pit mining mine on the island of Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea ....	53.6%	Copper	Papua New Guinea
Rio Tinto Borax	100%	Borates	United States (California; Colorado)
Coal and Allied Industries	75%	Coal	Australia (New South Wales)
Corumbá (mine)	100%	Iron ore	Brazil
Dampier Dampier, Western Australia Dampier is a major industrial port in the north-west of Western Australia. The Dampier Port is part of the Dampier Archipelago. The port services petrochemical, salt, iron ore and natural gas export industries.... Salt	65%	Salt	Australia (Western Australia)
Diavik Diamond Mine Diavik Diamond Mine The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mining in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.... s	60%	Diamonds	Canada
Energy Resources of Australia Energy Resources of Australia Energy Resources of Australia Ltd is a public company based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group which owns 68.4% of the company....	68%	Uranium	Australia (Northern Territory)
Minera Escondida Escondida Minera Escondida, which means 'hidden' in Spanish language, is a mining company that operates two open pit mining copper mines in the Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile....	30%	Copper	Chile
Grasberg Grasberg mine The Grasberg mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, at , and employs 19 500.... Joint Venture	40%	Copper	Papua New Guinea
Hamersley Iron Hamersley Iron Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assests for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio and three Japanese steel companies Mitsui Iron Ore Development P/L , Nippon Steel Aus... (Pilbara Iron)	100%	Iron ore	Australia (Western Australia)
HISmelt	60%	Iron smelting	Australia (Western Australia)
Iron Ore Company of Canada Iron Ore Company of Canada Iron Ore Company of Canada is a Canada-based producer of iron ore. The company was founded in 1949 from a partnership of Canadian and United States M.A....	59%	Iron ore	Canada
Kennecott Land Kennecott Land Kennecott Land, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group, is a land development company based in Murray, Utah, that was formed in 2001. Kennecott Land owns 93,000 acres of undeveloped land in Salt Lake County, Utah and Tooele County, Utah counties in the state, 75,000 acres of which are located in Salt Lake County....	100%	Land and water rights	United States (Utah)
Kennecott Utah Copper Kennecott Utah Copper Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation , a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in Magna, Utah, Utah, United States....	100%	Copper	United States (Utah)
Murowa Murowa diamond mine The Murowa list of diamond mines is a diamond mining located in south central Zimbabwe, about 40 kilometres from Zvishavane. The mine is majority owned and operated by the Rio Tinto Group, which also owns the Argyle diamond mine in Australia and part of the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada....	78%	Diamonds	Zimbabwe
Northparkes	80%	Copper	Australia (New South Wales)
Palabora	58%	Copper	South Africa
QIT-Fer et Titane Sorel	100%	Titanium Dioxide	Canada (Quebec)
QIT Madagascar Minerals	80%	Titanium Dioxide	Madagascar
Resolution Copper Resolution copper Resolution Copper is a joint venture underground mining copper mining project owned by both Rio Tinto Group, and BHP Billiton. the project is located in Superior, Arizona....	55%	Copper	United States (Arizona)
Richards Bay Minerals	50%	Titanium Dioxide	South Africa
Rio Tinto Alcan	100%	Aluminium	Canada
Rio Tinto Coal Australia Rio Tinto Coal Australia Rio Tinto Coal Australia is an Australian mining organisation, and is part of the Energy Group of Rio Tinto Group. In Queensland, RTCA operates the Blair Athol, Hail Creek, Kestrel and Tarong Mines....	100%	Coal	Australia
Rio Tinto Energy America	100%	Coal	United States (Wyoming)
Rio Tinto Madagascar	80%	Titanium Dioxide	Madagascar
Robe River (Pilbara Iron)	53%	Iron Ore	Australia (Western Australia)
Rössing Uranium Mine	69%	Uranium	Namibia
Talc de Lazunac	100%	Talc	France (Toulouse)
Three Springs Mine	100%	Talc	Australia (Western Australia)

Resources

The group produces a number of mineral commodities in its various divisions:

Iron ore
Iron ore

Iron ores are Rock and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red....

Rio Tinto wholly owns Hamersley Iron

Hamersley Iron

Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assests for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio and three Japanese steel companies Mitsui Iron Ore Development P/L , Nippon Steel Aus...
, which owns and operates a number of mines in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
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 Ore Company of Canada

Iron Ore Company of Canada is a Canada-based producer of iron ore. The company was founded in 1949 from a partnership of Canadian and United States M.A....
. 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. Future iron ore mines are being developed at Simandou

Simandou

Simandou is the site of a large iron ore deposit in southeastern Guinea, in the province of Nz?r?kor?. ...
in Guinea

Guinea

Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea. The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....
.

Copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....

The copper division not only produces copper itself, but also a considerable quantity of gold

Gold

Australia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, Chile

Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, some as part of joint ventures. The group owns Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation. 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.

Energy

The company's energy group includes coal

Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
mining operations in Australia

Australia

Rio Tinto Coal Australia

Rio Tinto Coal Australia is an Australian mining organisation, and is part of the Energy Group of Rio Tinto Group. In Queensland, RTCA operates the Blair Athol, Hail Creek, Kestrel and Tarong Mines....
) and North America, and Energy Resources of Australia

Energy Resources of Australia

Energy Resources of Australia Ltd is a public company based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group which owns 68.4% of the company....
, which operates the Ranger Uranium Mine

Ranger Uranium Mine

The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin, Northern Territory....
near Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin, Northern Territory.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia....
in Australia. The energy group also operates the Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
. This group contributed 20% of turnover and 11% of profit.

Industrial minerals

The Industrial minerals group extracts talc

Talc

Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Hydrogen2Magnesium34 or Magnesium3Silicon4Oxygen102....
, titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula titaniumoxygen2....
, salt

Salt

A salt, in chemistry, is defined as the product formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and base . Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically electric charge ....
, borax

Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
, amongst several others. These operations are scattered across Australia

Australia

United States

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
. This group contributed 15% of turnover and 11% of earnings.

Bauxite
Bauxite

Bauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite ?-AlO, and diaspore a-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2....

Rio Tinto owns Comalco

Comalco

Rio Tinto Aluminium is now known as Alcan after Rio's takeover of Alcan. It was the world's eighth largest aluminium company. It mines and manufactures bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium....
, which mines bauxite

Bauxite

Bauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite ?-AlO, and diaspore a-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2....
(aluminium ore) in Weipa

Weipa, Queensland

Weipa is the largest town on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. It is sometimes considered to be the 'Capital of Cape York' and is a mining town of over 3,000 people that exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast....
, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
, operates alumina refineries in Gladstone, Queensland

Gladstone, Queensland

Gladstone is an Australian city located some 550 kilometres by road north of Brisbane and 100 kilometres south-east of Rockhampton. The city is situated between the Calliope River to the north and the Boyne River some 14 kilometres to the south....
. It also operates two aluminium smelters in Australia at Bell Bay

Bell Bay, Tasmania

Bell Bay is an industrial centre and port located on the eastern shore of the Tamar River. It lies just south of George Town, Tasmania....
(Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
) and Boyne Island (Queensland, 59% interest), and one in New Zealand at Tiwai Point

Tiwai Point

Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff, New Zealand Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait to the south....
(79% interest). The group also operates the Anglesey Aluminium

Anglesey Aluminium

Anglesey Aluminium Metal Ltd. is a joint venture between Rio Tinto Group, Kaiser Aluminium and Chemical Corporation.Its aluminium smelter, located on the outskirts of Holyhead, is one of the largest employers in North Wales, with 540 staff members, and began to produce aluminium in 1971....
smelter at Holyhead

Holyhead

Holyhead is the List of Anglesey towns by population in the county of Anglesey in the north west of Wales.Although it is the largest town in the county, with a population of 11,237 , it is neither the county town nor actually on the island of Anglesey....
in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. This group contributed 16% of turnover and 14% of adjusted earnings. Rio Tinto now also owns Alcan; the Canadian based, hydro-powered aluminium operation. Alcan has at least one Alumina plant Vaudreuil Works in located in Saguenay

Diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
s

The company's diamond operations are best known for the pink

Diamond color

A chemically pure and structurally perfect Diamond is perfectly transparent with no hue, or color. However, in reality almost no gem-sized natural diamonds are absolutely perfect....
diamonds produced at the Argyle diamond mine

Argyle diamond mine

The Argyle diamond mine is a diamond mining located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Argyle mine is the largest diamond producer in the world by volume, although due to the low proportion of gem-quality diamonds, is not the leader by value....
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

Diavik Diamond Mine

The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mining in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories....
in Canada

Canada

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories are a provinces and territories of Canada of Canada.Located in northern Canada, it borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south....
, and the Murowa diamond mine

Murowa diamond mine

The Murowa list of diamond mines is a diamond mining located in south central Zimbabwe, about 40 kilometres from Zvishavane. The mine is majority owned and operated by the Rio Tinto Group, which also owns the Argyle diamond mine in Australia and part of the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada....
in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
.

Rio Tinto lodged mining lease applications for its Bunder diamond project in India in a move it called a vital step in the development of what could be the first significant world class diamond mine in the country.

Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto may refer to:*Rio Tinto Group, a multinational mining company** Rio Tinto Alcan, the mining company's aluminum division** Rio Tinto Stadium, a football stadium in Sandy, Utah, USA sponsored by the above company...
announced the exploration target for diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
mineralisation at the Bunder Project

Bunder Project

Bunder Project is a proposed new diamond mine , located at Janpad Panchayat Buxwaha, Tehsil Buxwaha, District, Chhatarpur India. If the project is approved and proves viable, it could be the "first significant world class diamond mine in India", according to the Rio Tinto Group, who have proposed the mine....
of 40-70 million tonnes at a grade of between 0.3 and 0.7 carats per tonne. The targeted diamond grades are at least three times greater than the grade of the Panna

Panna

Panna can refer to:* Aam panna, an Indian drink made from mangoes* Panna, India, a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh* Panna , a genus of fish in the family Sciaenidae...
mine, India’s only other hard rock diamond mine.

Bunder Project

Bunder Project

Bunder Project is a proposed new diamond mine , located at Janpad Panchayat Buxwaha, Tehsil Buxwaha, District, Chhatarpur India. If the project is approved and proves viable, it could be the "first significant world class diamond mine in India", according to the Rio Tinto Group, who have proposed the mine....
is located in Village Nimani, Janpad Panchayat Buxwaha, Tehsil Bijawar, District, Chhatarpur

Chhatarpur

Chhatarpur is a city and a municipality in Chhatarpur district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Chhatarpur District....
(Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a States and territories of India in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out....
) INDIA

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
,

Other commodities

Rio Tinto owns the Borax

Pacific Coast Borax Company

The Pacific Coast Borax Company was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Marion Smith. The company established and aggressively developed the famous Twenty-Mule-Team Borax trademark in order to promote the sale of its product....
company that produces borax

Borax

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid....
and is famous for the "20 Mule Team"

Twenty-Mule-Team Borax

Twenty-mule-team Borax is a brand of cleaner manufactured by the U.S. soap firm Dial Corporation....
trademark which it shares with the Dial Corporation.

Rio Tinto also produces bauxite

Bauxite

Gold

Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Sometimes called the ?space age metal?, it has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver colour....
, lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
, zinc

Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....
, cobalt

Cobalt

Cobalt is a hard, lustrous, grey metal, a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Although cobalt-based colors and pigments have been used since ancient times, and miners have long used the name kobold ore for some minerals, cobalt was only discovered in 1735 by Georg Brandt....
, nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....
and uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
.

Technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....

The company also has a technology group conducting research and development

Research and development

The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications [sic]" ...
, notably including the Hismelt iron smelting

Smelting

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores....
process, and an exploration

Mineral exploration

Mineral exploration is the process undertaken by companies, partnerships or corporations in the endeavour of finding ore to mining. Mineral exploration is a much more intensive, organised and professional form of mineral prospecting and, though it frequently uses the services of prospecting, the process of mineral exploration on the whole is...
group.

Public Impact

Involvement in European War and Politics

During the Spanish civil war

Spanish Civil War

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
and finance the war against Republican Spain. British investment in Spain was also a major consideration for British non-intervention

Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. Foreign governments contributed large amounts of financial assistance and military aid to forces led by General?simo Francisco Franco and those fighting on behalf of the Second Spanish Republic....
in Spain.

Public Face

On September 29, 2008, Rio Tinto announced a fifteen year naming rights deal to the new stadium of Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is the top-flight professional soccer league based in the United States, overseen by the United States Soccer Federation. The league is comprised of 15 teams, 14 in the U.S....
side Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake is an American soccer club that is based in the Salt Lake City, Utah suburb of Sandy, Utah that began playing in Major League Soccer in 2005....
. The stadium, named Rio Tinto Stadium, is located in Sandy

Sandy, Utah

Sandy is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, Utah, United States, and a suburb of Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The population was 88,418 at the United States Census, 2000, making it the List of cities in Utah city in Utah....
, Utah

Utah

The State of Utah is a western United States U.S. state of the United States. It was the List of U.S. states by date of statehood admitted to the United States on January 4, 1896....
and accommodates just over 20,000 people. The deal is rumoured to be worth around $2 million per year for Real Salt Lake.

Awards

Rio Tinto has also won an award for ethical behaviour, the Worldaware Award for Sustainable development. However, although this award was decided by an independent committee, it was, like some other WorldAware Awards, sponsored by another multinational corporation (in this case, the sponsor was Tate and Lyle). Rio Tinto has, in turn, sponsored its own WorldAware award, the Rio Tinto Award for Long-term Commitment, which was awarded to a variety of local and multinational players including in 1999 to Shell Pakistan.

Criticisms

Environmental, political, safety and labour rights concerns have been raised against Rio Tinto by both environmental groups and unions, in particular the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry and furnishing products, mining and energy production....
(CFMEU). The CFMEU ran a campaign against the company which tried to de-unionise its workforce after the introduction of the Howard Government

John Howard

John Winston Howard, Order of Australia was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Robert Menzies....
's Workplace Relations Act 1996

WorkChoices

The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, or WorkChoices, which came into effect in March 2006, was the most comprehensive change to industrial relations in Australia in over a century....
.

Another has been Rio Tinto's involvement in Papua New Guinea which triggered the Bougainville separatist crisis

History of Bougainville

Bougainville Province is a province of Papua New Guinea. It was named after the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville....
. The British anti-poverty charity War on Want

War on Want

War on Want is an anti-poverty Charitable organization based in London, England, which highlights the needs of poverty-stricken areas around the world, lobbying governments and international agencies to tackle problems, as well as raising public awareness of the concerns of developing nations while supporting organisations throughout the thir...
has criticised Rio Tinto for its complicity in the serious human rights violations which have been occurred near the mines it operates in Indonesia, West Papua and Papua New Guinea.

While RTZ has put a lot of energy into cleaning up its tainted human-rights image from the aftermath of crises like the above, many critics feel the company has not substantially changed.

Claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine

Grasberg mine

The Grasberg mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, at , and employs 19 500....
in Indonesia has led The Government Pension Fund of Norway

The Government Pension Fund of Norway

The Government Pension Fund of Norway comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the Government of Norway:* The Government Pension Fund - Global ...
to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio. The fund, which is said to be the second largest pension fund in the world, sold shares in the company at a value of NOK 4,85 bilion (US$ 855 million) in order to avoid the risk of contributing to environmental damages caused by the company.

Rio Tinto Group

History

Formation

Operating History

Major Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dispositions

Recent Developments

Corporate Status

Organization

Subsidiaries

Resources

Iron oreIron oreIron ores are Rock and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red....

CopperCopperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....

Energy

Industrial minerals

BauxiteBauxiteBauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite ?-AlO, and diaspore a-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2....

DiamondDiamondIn mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....s

Other commodities

TechnologyTechnologyTechnology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....

Public Impact

Involvement in European War and Politics

Public Face

Awards

Criticisms

External links

Iron ore
Iron ore

Iron ores are Rock and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red....

Copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....

Bauxite
Bauxite

Bauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite ?-AlO, and diaspore a-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2....

Diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
s

Technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....