Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational mining company headquartered in London, England, and Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1873 when a group of British investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. It has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions and is today a major producer of commodities such as copper, iron ore, aluminium and lithium.
Rio Tinto is a dual-listed company, traded on both the London Stock Exchange, where it is a component of the FTSE 100 Index, and the Australian Securities Exchange, where it is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index. American depositary shares of Rio Tinto's British branch are also traded on the New York Stock Exchange,[1][3] giving it listings on three major stock exchanges. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, it was ranked the world's 114th-largest public company.[4] It was ranked the world's 274th largest company in the 2025 Fortune Global 500.[5]
Rio Tinto has faced criticism by environmental groups as well as the government of Norway for the environmental impacts of its mining activities.
History
Formation
Since antiquity, a site along the Río Tinto in Huelva, Spain, has been mined for copper, silver, gold and other minerals.[6] Around 3000 BC, Iberians and Tartessians began mining the site, followed by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Moors. After a period of abandonment, the mines were rediscovered in 1556 and the Spanish government began operating them once again in 1724.[6]
However, Spain's mining operations there were inefficient, and the government itself was otherwise distracted by political and financial crises,[7] leading the government to sell the mines in 1873 at a price later determined to be well below actual value.[8]
Subsidiaries
The company has operations on six continents, but is mainly concentrated in Australia and Canada, and owns its mining operations through a complex web of wholly and partly owned subsidiaries.
- Energy Resources of Australia – 68.4%
- Hathor Exploration – 100%
- QIT-Fer et Titane – 100%
- Dampier Salt – 68.4%
- Iron Ore Company of Canada – 58.7%
- Pacific Aluminum – 100%
- Richards Bay Minerals – 74%
Corporate status
Rio Tinto is primarily organised into four operational businesses, divided by product type:[102]
These operating groups are supported by separate divisions providing exploration and function support.[103]
- Iron ore
- Aluminium – aluminium, bauxite and alumina
- Copper & Diamonds – copper and by-products such as gold, silver, molybdenum and sulphuric acid, and the company's diamond interests
- Energy & Minerals – uranium interests, industrial minerals such as borax, salt and titanium dioxide. The corporation previously held coal production assets.
Stock structure and ownership
Operations
Rio Tinto's main business is the production of raw materials including copper, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, uranium and industrial minerals including titanium dioxide, salt, gypsum and borates. Rio Tinto also performs processing on some of these materials, with plants dedicated to processing bauxite into alumina and aluminium, and smelting iron ore into iron. The company also produces other metals and minerals as by-products from the processing of its main resources, including gold, silver, molybdenum, sulphuric acid, nickel, potash, lead and zinc.[131] Rio Tinto controls gross assets of $81 billion in value across the globe, with main concentrations in Australia (35%), Canada (34%), Europe (13%) and the United States (11%), and smaller holdings in South America (3%), Africa (3%) and Indonesia (1%).[108]
Iron ore: Rio Tinto Iron Ore
The Australian operations of Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO) comprises an integrated iron ore operations in the Pilbara, Western Australia. The Pilbara iron ore operations include 16 iron ore mines, four independent port terminals, a 1,700-kilometre rail network and related infrastructure.[137]
Financial results
Rio Tinto's revenues and earnings have grown substantially in 2003–2010, with one of the largest increases attributable to the company's acquisition of Alcan in 2007. Although its operating margin is significantly affected by the market prices of the commodities it produces, it has remained profitable over its recent history.[132][156][157]
Environmental issues
Grasberg Mine – Indonesia
Rio Tinto has been criticised by the government of Norway, which divested itself from Rio Tinto shares and banned further investment due to environmental concerns. Claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia led the Government Pension Fund of Norway to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio. The fund, which is said to be the world's second-largest pension fund, sold shares in the company valued at NOK4.85 billion (US$855 million) to avoid contributing to environmental damages caused by the company.[180] Rio Tinto disputes the claims of environmental damage at the Grasberg mine.[181]
Resolution Copper Mine – Arizona, U.S.
As part of a rider of the National Defense Authorization Act, the United States government agreed in 2014 to hand over the Oak Flat sacred preserve in Arizona to a joint venture of Rio Tinto and
See also
Further reading
- Harvey, Charles E. The Rio Tinto Company: an economic history of a leading international mining concern, 1873–1954. (Alison Hodge, 1981).
External links
References
- Annual Results 2025 Rio Tinto, retrieved 19 February 2026^
- About us Rio Tinto, retrieved 27 January 2026^
- Shareholder Information riotinto.com^