RIO - Rio Tinto plc
| Previous close | 51.23 |
| Open | 51.61 |
| Bid | 50.36 x 800 |
| Ask | 50.37 x 900 |
| Day's range | 50.16 - 51.64 |
| 52-week range | 47.88 - 64.02 |
| Volume | 2,538,241 |
| Avg. volume | 1,479,875 |
| Market cap | 86.285B |
| Beta (5Y monthly) | 0.83 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 6.32 |
| EPS (TTM) | 7.97 |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 3.02 (5.99%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 07 Aug 2019 |
| 1y target est | 51.93 |
- Reuters
Rio Tinto posts best earnings since 2011, ready for short-term coronavirus impact
The coronavirus outbreak has weighed on China's economy and BHP Group warned earlier this month that demand this year could take a hit if the fallout extended beyond March. The world's top iron ore producer said underlying earnings for the full year ended Dec. 31 rose to $10.37 billion (7.99 billion pounds), from $8.81 billion a year earlier. It was slightly under a consensus estimate of $10.40 billion by 17 analysts compiled by research firm Vuma Financial.
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto 2019 full year results presentation
The Rio Tinto 2019 full year results presentation slides are available at https://www.riotinto.com/invest/financial-news-performance/regulatory-filings
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto announces full-year ordinary dividend of $6.2 billion (382 US cents per share), including record final ordinary dividend of $3.7 billion (231 US cents per share), resulting in total cash returns of $7.2 billion (443 US cents per share)
Rio Tinto Chief Executive J-S Jacques said "We have again delivered strong financial results with underlying EBITDA of $21.2 billion, underlying EBITDA margin of 47% and return on capital employed of 24%. This performance allows us to return a record final ordinary dividend of $3.7 billion, resulting in a full-year ordinary dividend of $6.2 billion and total cash returns of $7.2 billion.
- Bloomberg
Markets Are Waking Up to the Virus Reality
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Sharp falls in Asian markets and U.S. stock futures Monday suggest investors are starting to catch up to the disconnect between the coronavirus’s widening impact and hopes of a V-shaped recovery.It’s a gap that has been particularly visible in metals. China, where much of the economy remains in lockdown, accounts for about half the world’s appetite for materials from iron ore to copper. That makes the sector highly vulnerable to a coronavirus-induced slowdown, and a helpful gauge of how well the reality of economic activity is being reflected in financial markets. The answer? Not enough.While some larger mills and smelters are working, disrupted transport and absent workers mean physical demand is in the doldrums. Domestic inventories of everything from steel to copper are high. Bloomberg Economics calculated last week that the world’s second-largest economy was running at 50-60% of capacity in the week ended Feb. 21. That is better than the week before and could well improve over the coming days. Still, it’s a level that seems hard to square with the way shares in miners such as BHP Group, Rio Tinto Group and others have been trading.Almost all major mining stocks bounced back after February lows, with BHP and peers falling below that only on Monday. They remain well above their troughs last year, when concerns over the U.S-China trade war rattled the market. Even copper futures on the London Metal Exchange, a reflection of confidence in the global economy rather than just physical demand, have rebounded.It’s not that investors are brushing off risk. There’s evidence of nervousness to be found in haven assets like gold, which last week broke through $1,600 an ounce. Yields on long-dated U.S. Treasuries have tumbled. More pessimistic commentary is also emerging from company executives.Investors appear to have been betting on three things. First, that the virus will be contained in the coming weeks. Second, that Beijing will unleash hefty fiscal and monetary stimulus. Finally, that demand impacted by the virus will be deferred, and not simply lost. Unfortunately, none of these things is certain. For metals and the resilient equity valuations of their producers, the coming days will be critical, as it becomes clear just how many workers emerge from quarantine and how much the Chinese government’s push to restart production is paying off. So far, the number of people on any form of transport is still a fraction of where it was a year ago, according to Bloomberg Economics.There are risks even if people do return. It’s much harder for face masks and hand sanitizer to offer protection in construction projects, which may well push back the start of the spring season, hurting steel and ingredients like iron ore. Domestic prices for steel used in manufacturing and building are still at their lowest in almost three years. BHP, which expects Chinese real GDP growth of around 6% for 2020, said last week that it would revise its forecasts lower if construction and manufacturing don’t return to normal in April.So how does that square with what equity investors are pricing in? The hope for a hefty stimulus from Beijing, which underpins much of the equity market’s buoyancy for miners and beyond, seems broadly to match what China has already said and done. There is already monetary easing and other forms of support, from help with social security payments for small companies to busing in workers in some provinces. But it’s still unclear what shape the bulk of the fiscal stimulus will take and how heavy it can be in sectors such as property, where the government remains wary of bubbles. China is also well aware that splurging on debt to get the economy moving will mean pain in the not-too-distant future. That creates plenty of uncertainty.The other two assumptions are even more problematic.Whether China can contain the virus will be hard to tell for some time, not least given Beijing’s changes to the way cases are reported. It’s unclear what will happen once sealed-off areas begin to open, given epidemics can have more than one peak. Mass quarantines at this scale are also untested in the age of supply chains. Assuming everything bounces back swiftly is optimistic. The emergence of substantial clusters outside Hubei and indeed beyond China — in South Korea, Iran and Italy — is worrying.Then there’s demand for everything from washing machines to takeaway coffee and bigger-ticket items like cars, where sales have dropped 92% in the first half of February. It’s unclear how much will be pushed back. The underlying economic uncertainty is greater than during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, when growth rebounded quickly.That all makes mining stocks and the wider equity markets look a little lofty. During SARS, Hong Kong’s market fell almost a third from its 2002 high to the trough of 2003. This time, the Hang Seng Index, admittedly with different components, is down just 6% from its pre-virus 2020 high, as of Friday. It may all blow over. For now, the risks are to the downside. To contact the author of this story: Clara Ferreira Marques at cferreirama@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- The Guardian
Rio Tinto appoints three women as non-executive directors
Rio Tinto appoints three women as non-executive directors. Mining group had one of the least gender diverse boardrooms of world’s biggest companies
- Bloomberg
How an Iron-Ore Billionaire Escapes ESG Scrutiny
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Australia’s richest man Andrew Forrest cherishes his reputation as one of the good guys. That makes his intimate involvement in one of the world’s most polluting industries a problem.The founder of the world’s fourth-biggest iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. has done spectacularly well from riding the Chinese steel boom of the past two decades. Net income at Fortescue increased nearly fourfold to $2.45 billion in the first half of the year, the company said Wednesday, delivering A$828 million ($554 million) of interim dividends to Forrest and Minderoo Group Pty., which he controls. The financial bonanza has been blessedly free of the scrutiny that ESG-focused investors such as BlackRock Inc. and Norges Bank Investment Management have devoted to thermal coal in recent months.That's rather remarkable. For all the attention on thermal coal, producing a metric ton of steel in a blast furnace releases almost as much carbon as burning a ton of coal for energy. Globally, the steel industry accounts for about 2.8 billion metric tons of annual emissions, compared to 10.1 billion tons for thermal coal. The world’s major iron ore producers are responsible for some of the largest volumes of end-use emissions globally, equivalent to those of the very biggest independent oil companies.While Fortescue doesn’t disclose such Scope 3 emissions (unusual for a company that values its reputation for responsible business practices), a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests it accounts for around 250 million tons of carbon pollution each year. That puts the company somewhere between Rosneft Oil Co. and Glencore Plc. The 35% stake held by Forrest and Minderoo equates to annual emissions similar to those from the entire country of Bangladesh.How have steelmakers and iron miners evaded the attention of climate-focused investors? A large part of the explanation may be the perception that there’s no alternative to carbon-intensive blast furnaces to provide the world’s steel needs, rendering measures to reduce this emissions burden futile. That’s increasingly not the case, though. Electric arc furnaces making recycled metal from scrap have swept through the U.S. steel industry in recent decades to push dirtier blast furnaces aside. The same technology can be adapted to make non-recycled steel, too, and using hydrogen to burn off the oxygen from iron ore can potentially almost entirely decarbonize the steelmaking process.Swedish steelmaker SSAB AB this month announced plans with miner LKAB AB and utility Vattenfall AB to develop just such a fossil-free steel plant. While the product would cost 20% to 30% more than traditional blast furnace steel, it would be competitive at a carbon price of 40 euros ($43) to 60 euros a metric ton, according to a 2018 study — not that much more than current prices of around 25 euros in Europe’s carbon market. That would look still more attractive if falling prices for renewable electricity and hydrogen, plus wider deployment of electric furnaces, further drove down costs.Forrest is in a unique situation to push miners, steelmakers and governments to accelerate this transition. Unlike the boards and management of BHP Group, Rio Tinto Group and Vale SA, he’s the founder and chairman of his company and has a dominant shareholding.Forrest has made similar stands in the past. When he found at least 12 suppliers employing forced labor — an obvious conflict with his campaign against modern slavery — he promised to drum them out of business if they didn’t change.To date, that same principled approach hasn’t extended to the role that Fortescue and its customers play in climate change. Despite donating A$70 million to aid recovery from the bushfires which have swept Australia in recent months, he’s vacillated between citing the role of global warming in the disaster, repeating bogus claims that arson played the “biggest part” in the fires, and making questionable arguments around reducing forest litter.Pressed repeatedly in an interview with CNN last month to clarify what more he could be doing, he denied, implausibly, that the mining industry had “lobbied hard” against climate policies and said that “the science has to be done” on how to mitigate the fires. In a subsequent article for the Sydney Morning Herald, Forrest said that climate change is real and is intensifying natural disasters.Fortescue is unusually well-placed to benefit from any shift in the steelmaking industry toward a lower-carbon route. The big loser from a move away from blast furnaces would be coking coal — but unlike BHP and Vale, Fortescue doesn’t produce any. Its iron ore is of lower quality than its larger competitors, so would have most to gain from being upgraded to the iron briquettes that would be consumed by electric primary steel mills. Forrest has invested A$20 million to develop hydrogen export capacity for Australia. Using that gas for upgrading ore would represent a much better use of the technology.The risk for iron ore miners like Fortescue is that they’re betting everything on the odds that blast furnaces continue to dominate global steel production. With demand approaching a plateau, a glut of Chinese scrap looming, and rising attention on industrial carbon emissions, that’s no longer such a sure thing. A decade ago, miners were similarly full of confidence that wind and solar power could never supplant the role of thermal coal in electricity generation. How did that prediction turn out? (Corrects the second paragraph of column first published Feb. 19 to show that Minderoo Group Pty. is the entity that receives dividends; clarifies Forrest’s position on climate change in the 12th paragraph.)To contact the author of this story: David Fickling at dfickling@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto board changes
Rio Tinto will appoint three new independent non-executive directors to the board.
- Reuters
Rio Tinto seeks international arbitration on tax dispute with Mongolia
Rio Tinto is already stuck in renegotiations over terms of the agreement underpinning the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine project, as local lawmakers contend that financial gains from the project are not being evenly shared with Mongolia. The project is Mongolia's biggest foreign investment and has been subject to lengthy delays and ballooning costs, leaving the country's lawmakers impatient for income. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto says it has invested billions.
- Business Wire
Oyu Tolgoi to pursue international arbitration
Rio Tinto announces that Oyu Tolgoi LLC (Oyu Tolgoi) has initiated a formal international arbitration process to seek a definitive resolution with regard to a dispute with the Mongolian Tax Authority (MTA), concerning taxes paid by Oyu Tolgoi between 2013 and 2015.
- Fool.co.uk
I like these 2 high-dividend-yield stocks that are about to report earnings
Full-year results are due from Persimmon and Rio Tinto next week. Should dividend investors continue to hold the stocks or even top-up now?The post I like these 2 high-dividend-yield stocks that are about to report earnings appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
- Reuters
Fires and climate fears rattle Australia's giant coal lobby
As bushfires and floods fuel public concerns in Australia about global warming, the country's powerful mining lobby is facing increasing pressure from investors to drop support for new coal mines, according to a dozen interviews with shareholders in global mining companies. Nearly a third of shareholders in BHP Group Ltd , the world's biggest miner, last year voted for resolutions to axe its membership in industry groups advocating policies counter to the Paris climate accord, which aims to limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius.
- Fool.co.uk
A ridiculously cheap dividend-paying stock I’d buy now
Is the doom and gloom surrounding mining companies like Rio Tinto reasonable? Anna Sokolidou tries to find out.The post A ridiculously cheap dividend-paying stock I’d buy now appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Chinese copper smelting activity slips in January - satellite index
Chinese refined copper production touched its lowest level in 20 months in January, according to an index based on satellite surveillance of copper plants. It sells data to fund managers, traders and miners, and also publishes a free monthly index of copper smelter activity. Global activity rose to an average of 90.1 in January, up 0.2 points from the previous month.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Glencore says emissions from using its products to fall 30% by 2035
Glencore said on Tuesday it expected carbon emissions from the use of its products to fall by around 30% by 2035, largely due to falling coal output, becoming the first of the major mining companies to make such a projection. Glencore, which operates mines and trades commodities, said Scope 3 emissions would fall through the "natural depletion" of its oil and coal resources but that it was not yet ready to set targets for their active reduction. A year ago, Glencore said it would cap coal output at 150 million tonnes per annum.
- Bloomberg
BHP Can Afford to Go a Lot Greener
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Mike Henry has kicked off his tenure at the helm of the world’s largest miner with a 29% increase in first-half earnings. That laudable result was fueled by iron ore, a steelmaking ingredient. BHP Group’s promised climate targets remain a work in progress. It’s a striking contrast with BP Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney, who started in the top job this month with a green splash. BHP would do well to seize the initiative as details unfold in the critical months ahead.Looney and Henry are, in a way, brothers in arms. Both are company veterans, at the top of $120 billion-plus resources heavyweights. Both took over this year from chief executives who came in to tackle crises, and start in a better financial position than their predecessors. Both are trying to juggle competing demands for stable production, generous payouts and the need to prepare for a carbon-light future. For both, that’s how success will be measured.The bar is low in the resources industry, which has long avoided tackling its responsibilities for the grim reality of a warmer climate. In that context, BHP and BP are both ahead of the pack. Melbourne-based BHP said last year it would hit net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 for its own operations, and announced it would begin to tackle carbon produced by its customers. It had already said 2022 emissions from its mines and wells would be at or below 2017 levels. Plus, the Australian company plans to tie executive compensation more closely to climate goals. London-based BP, meanwhile, has set net-zero targets by 2050 for a wider set of emissions, partly encompassing its supply chain. Only Spain’s Repsol SA, far smaller, has been more ambitious.Lofty vision is the easy bit. Assuming they stay in place as long as their predecessors, Henry and Looney will preside over a decade that will determine the success or failure of efforts to address climate change. They, and their companies’ stock valuations, will stand apart if their efforts help investors price risk appropriately, and shed light on the future shape of the companies. Details matter more than early headlines. That means clear, measurable targets for all categories of emissions. It means a plan for fossil fuel-heavy portfolios. It means a commitment to justify spending decisions with green goals in mind, as BP and Glencore Plc have agreed to do. It’s a gargantuan challenge. First, because investors want everything: bumper earnings, hefty dividends and a future-proof business. That may not be possible. BHP’s interim figure Tuesday already disappointed some.Then, consider much of the environmental damage is done beyond the mine gate, and is therefore harder to control. For BP, those wider emissions amount to just under 90% of the total. For BHP, it’s even worse: For the 2019 financial year, it said the processing of non-fossil fuel commodities added as much as 305 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and fossil fuel use added up to 233 million. There’s some double counting here, so the figures can’t be combined, but Australia’s total, for comparison, was just under 540 million metric tons for the year through March 2019.That means credible efforts to turn BHP’s operations greener, like the use of electric cars at its Olympic Dam project in Australia or the move to renewable energy at the Escondida copper mine in Chile. While welcome, such moves aren’t sufficient. The same goes for a $400 million, five-year climate investment program.The task over the coming months will be to come up with with measurable ambitions for the short, medium and long term, for both operational emissions and beyond. Those will need to link back to remuneration packages that also tie executives in for longer.In tandem, Henry will have to tackle BHP’s portfolio. The former head of BHP’s Minerals Australia arm said Tuesday that he wanted more options in “future facing” metals, specifically copper and nickel, used in wind turbines, solar power and rechargeable batteries. That’s encouraging, but competition is tough and scale may be smaller than the miner would prefer. Henry will also have to make a decision on the company’s Jansen potash project in the coming months.The remaining assets are a pricklier problem, including the future of oil and coal. BHP has lagged behind rivals like Rio Tinto Group, which sold its last thermal coal mine in 2018. Buyers for its thermal assets, including Mount Arthur Coal and a third of Cerrejon in Colombia, are proving scarce. It may not want to make the same mistake with metallurgical coal, even if for now margins are sounder, and substitution is difficult.All of this needs to be done against a challenging background for the commodities industry, buffeted by the coronavirus epidemic sweeping China, the world’s biggest importer of coal, iron ore and oil. BHP, with a lucrative copper business and a healthy balance sheet, has options. Henry can afford to be bold. To contact the author of this story: Clara Ferreira Marques at cferreirama@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Rio Tinto says Mongolian project submits feasibility study on locally sourced power
Rio Tinto Ltd on Tuesday said its Mongolian copper mine project has submitted a feasibility study to the local government in its bid to secure domestically sourced power for the East Asian's country's biggest foreign investment project. Oyu Tolgoi LLC submitted a feasibility study for the Tavan Tolgoi Power Plant (TTPP) Project, which involves building a 300 MW coal power plant at an estimated cost of about $924 million, the Anglo-Australian miner said in a statement. The global miner said it is also working on alternative options to source domestic power, including a renewable power component.
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto progresses Oyu Tolgoi power options
Rio Tinto progresses Oyu Tolgoi power options
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Record-breaking dividends
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto: Update on Tropical Cyclone Damien
Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations in the Pilbara, Western Australia, are progressively resuming following the passing of Tropical Cyclone Damien. The cyclone caused infrastructure damage across our entire Pilbara network, including impact to access roads, electrical and communications infrastructure and accommodation. All mine sites experienced some disruption and will take time to return to normal operations.
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto to build first solar plant in Western Australia to power iron ore mine
Rio Tinto has approved a $98 million (100 per cent basis) investment in a new solar plant at the Koodaideri mine in the Pilbara, Australia, as well as a lithium-ion battery energy storage system to help power its entire Pilbara power network.
- Reuters - UK Focus
EU launches anti-dumping investigation on China aluminium products
The European Commission has opened an investigation into whether China is dumping aluminium extrusions, products widely used in transport, construction and electronics, in the European Union, it said on Friday. A notice in the EU's Official Journal said it was acting on a complaint filed last month by industry group European Aluminium representing seven producers. "The evidence provided by the complainant shows that the volume and the prices of the imported product under investigation have had, among other consequences, a negative impact," the Commission said.
- Bloomberg
Iron Ore’s Brazilian Rain Dance Looks Premature
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Good news has been in short supply for iron-ore markets since China began shuttering swathes of the economy to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Prices gained after Vale SA offered a thin salve Tuesday, saying first-quarter output will be lower than previously anticipated because of heavy rains in Brazil. The market may be cheering a little too soon.Iron-ore supply was supposed to return to normal this year, after 2019 was marked by disruptions including a fatal accident at one of Vale’s dams and a tropical cyclone in Australia. The Brazilian heavyweight and Rio Tinto Group, which vie to be the world’s biggest shipper of the steelmaking ingredient, both plan to increase production. The prospect of higher supply was reflected in Australia’s quarterly forecasts, published in December, which saw prices easing to $60 per metric ton by 2021 — more than a fifth below 2019’s elevated average.The coronavirus epidemic has accelerated that trend by slashing demand in the world’s largest consumer of iron ore, pushing prices in Singapore below $80 by early February.The picture isn’t encouraging. China’s return to work is proving gradual, even with official encouragement. Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, accounts for about 2% of Chinese steel production, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Some mills are working, but downstream demand has been hit across the country. Iron-ore stockpiles are building at China’s ports. Inventories of rebar, a benchmark for steel used in building work, stand at their highest level for early February since 2012. Carmakers also expect a production and sales hit: About 70% of dealers polled by the local industry association said earlier this week they had seen almost no customers since the end of January. Worse, the country’s role in global supply chains means there will be ripples.All of this will still be fine in the long run if two things happen next: first, if supply eases alongside demand; second, if China regains its appetite fast, perhaps aided by stimulus.The trouble for the market is that the current iron-ore price appears to have built in both assumptions. Optimism around the incremental number of virus cases, combined with Vale’s outlook, means Singapore futures are now down about 9% from when the epidemic began to look serious in mid-January. Domestic futures on the Dalian exchange have risen for two consecutive days, alongside stocks in steelmakers, cement companies and developers, encouraged by comments from President Xi Jinping.The output picture does offer some hope. There is consolation in Vale’s rain-hit first quarter, and indeed minor disruption around Cyclone Damien in Australia. Vale’s full-year output target of 355 million tons involves assumptions around permits that could yet see delays. Yet Rio Tinto, BHP Group and others expect higher output in 2020. Chinese production may also be less sensitive to weaker prices than it once was, ticking higher despite the virus.Demand is harder to forecast. There will be fits and starts, and the long incubation period for the novel coronavirus makes its path far harder to predict outside Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei. Supply chains will take months to repair even if the virus is contained.The biggest unknown is the shape of China’s post-virus stimulus. Undoubtedly, it will lean on infrastructure, but that will take time to feed through. And don’t expect a repeat of the swift post-SARS recovery — in 2003, China was on an expansion path. That was also the case during the global financial crisis, when China splurged the equivalent of $586 billion on bridges and the like.China in 2020 has to weigh the need to crank up growth, with the end of its current five year plan looming, against the risks of causing a further buildup of debt and creating property bubbles. Infrastructure and construction, which traditionally account for most of China’s steel and iron ore consumption, may benefit far less than in past crises. Much will become clear after the legislature’s annual meeting in March (assuming it goes ahead on schedule). A sugar rush may well be on the way; it just may not be sweet enough. To contact the author of this story: Clara Ferreira Marques at cferreirama@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Rio Tinto says China virus slowing copper ore imports from Mongolia
- Reuters - UK Focus
Rio Tinto puts aluminium smelter in Iceland up for review
Rio Tinto on Wednesday said it would review its ISAL aluminium smelter in Iceland and consider options including closure and curtailment. The Anglo-Australian miner said it expects the smelter to remain unprofitable in the short to medium term, citing challenging conditions in the aluminium industry and the smelter's "uncompetitive energy costs".
- Business Wire
Rio Tinto to review future of ISAL smelter
Rio Tinto will conduct a strategic review of the ISAL smelter in Iceland, to determine the operation’s ongoing viability and explore options to improve its competitive position.
