Rio Tinto is a world leader in finding, mining and processing the earths mineral resources. The Groups worldwide operations supply essential minerals and metals that help to meet global needs and contribute to improvements in living standards. Rio Tinto encourages strong local identities and has a devolved management philosophy, entrusting responsibility with accountability to the workplace. Major products include aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy products (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc and zircon), and iron ore. The Groups activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa. Rio Tinto comprises wholly owned subsidiaries (such as Borax, Comalco, Hamersley, Rio Tinto Coal Australia, Kennecott and Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium), partly owned subsidiaries (Coal & Allied and Palabora) and non-managed, (Escondida) and joint ventures (Grasberg) in which public shareholders, other companies or governments are partners.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

SALES PER ACTIVITY (Data as of 31/12/2005)

Iron:        29%
Coal:       19%
Copper     18%
Aluminum: 14.5%
Minerals:  12.5%
:              6%
Misc:        1%

Seems to be recovering from tax sting... in profit today

Broker note today from UBS:
"Australian Labor Party replaced Rudd with Gillard as PM Today the ruling Australian Labor Party replaced Kevin Rudd as its leader and Prime Minister, with Julia Gillard (former Deputy Prime Minister).

Gillard opens door for a period of negotiation on RSPT Following todays announcement, Gillard renewed the Labor Partys support for a mining tax, but has called for a new period of discussion. Importantly, she has said the government must not only consult but also negotiate, suggesting some compromise could eventually be forthcoming. As an act of good-faith, the ALP has withdrawn their advertising campaign, and asked the miners to do the same. In response, BHP also announced it was suspending its advertising campaign.

We still believe the ALP will look to implement a mining tax. We believe it remains highly likely that a mining tax will be introduced. However, following today, it seems almost assured that a diluted version of the initial version of the RSPT will eventuate. However, given the proposed new negotiation, the resolution of details may now be further in the future opening up a longer period of uncertainty for the miners

Our prior NPV impacts represent the worst case scenario for the miners.
We currently estimate a 18% impact to Rio; 15% impact to BHP; 7% for Xstrata from the tax. We consider this the worst case scenario and see potential upside from here. Stocks impacted: Rio Tinto (Key Call in Europe,
Buy, PT 4235p, A$109), BHP Billiton (Buy, PT 2330p/A$53), Xstrata (Neutral, PT 1100p), Anglo American (Buy, PT 3150p). Expect a short term bounce in the miners"

Bounced off of 40 quid twice today.

5 year chart is quite interesting .... 4000 could be a bit of a resistance

Its through it - to short or not to short hmmmm.

i dabble in RIO from time to time, but it can be very scary as it can fly up/down by 100/200 in a trice

there's a swathe of announcements today, all of which look good to me .... sp took its customary drop "on the news" so have had a little dabble after a long time away

Blue Chip Bulletin: Rio Tinto faces cyclone disruption

Blue Chip Bulletin: Rio Tinto faces cyclone disruption http://www.whatinvestment.co.uk/trading/share-dealing/uk-companies/1603548/blue-chip-bulletin-rio-tinto-faces-cyclone-disruption.thtml

Australia mining tax clears hurdle, after much debate

The Australian government's plan to impose a 30% tax on big mining companies has cleared a major hurdle, passing through parliament's lower house.

It will go to the upper senate early next year, but is expected to pass.

The government said the tax was a way to distribute wealth more evenly from Australia's resources boom.

It will go into effect in July 2012, and will apply to mining giants such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

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Just 9 billion then!

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mnamreh - 17 Jan 2013 08:40 - 267 of 267 That's TANKER'S age adjusted IQ.

What a coincidence.

Sounds like they were duped or blind (advisers need their bonuses too). Bit like the Autonomy/HP goings-on only with someone doing the decent thing.

Maybe clearing the decks for a clean start for new FY.

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I missed that - obviously too slow!

Albanese will remain on the company payroll until July, but won't receive a performance bonus for 2012 or 2013. He also forfeits his 2013 long-term share award.

quite right too, and there's a bundle of other companies - e.g. uk banks, bbc etc - who should take note and act similarly when the chief honcho or similar cocks up

The Sunday Telegraph


Mining giant Rio Tinto posted its first ever full-year loss after writing down 14.4 billion US dollars (£9.2 billion) of its assets following an acquisition spree.

The mammoth writedowns led to last month's departure of Tom Albanese, Rio's chief executive since 2007, who carried the can for the ill-fated acquisitions of aluminium group Alcan and a coal business in Mozambique.


Impairment charges, mainly relating to the two deals, meant Rio last week recorded losses of three billion US dollars (£1.9 billion).


New boss Sam Walsh pledged an "unrelenting focus" on improving shareholder returns, driven by cost savings of more than five billion US dollars (£3.2 billion) by the end of next year and greater discipline on capital spending.


Mr Walsh, who used to run the company's iron ore operations, said Rio's strategy of operating large, long-life, low-cost mines in the most favourable industry sectors was the right one.


Rio's shares suffered last year as commodity prices slumped.
The company made 90% of its net earnings last year from iron ore operations and its exposure to the steel-making ingredient will further increase when the group's 290 million-tonne expansion in the Pilbara region of Western Australia comes on stream during the fourth quarter.


However, prices are buoyant and Rio is a low-cost producer.
Shares have recently risen amid the wider market rally, but at 3733.5p there is more upside to come and investors are advised to buy.


Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-2280016/Sunday-newspaper-share-tips-Greencoat--Rio-Tinto.html#ixzz2LC1c0fth
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

keep an eye on this quality heavyweight
it'll certainly be a beneficiary of any sustained demand for hard commodities, thought it can be a bit of a scary ride

Jefferies note today:
"Impressive operating results: Rio’s full year 2013 underlying EPS increased 10%, from $5.01 in 2012 to $5.53 in 2013, and was significantly ahead of consensus. Rio’s full year underlying EBITDA increased from $19.2bn in 2012 to almost $21.5bn in 2013, and the company’s cash flow from operations increased from $16.5bn to $20.1bn, up 22% y/y. Rio is clearly delivering operationally and is recapturing its pre-Alcan position as arguably the highest quality mining company in the world. We expect further earnings growth for Rio in the years ahead as the company’s organic volume growth and unit cost reductions more than offset the headwind of a declining iron ore price. On our estimates, Rio’s EPS will increase from $5.53 in 2013 to $6.55 in 2016 even as the benchmark iron ore fines spot price declines from $135 to $90 per tonne over this period. Note that the company’s underlying EPS increased from $2.29 in 1H13 to $3.24 in 2H13 even though the iron ore fines price fell from $137/t on average in 1H to $134/t in 2H.
Huge capex reduction with further to go: Rio’s reported 2013 capex of $12.9bn was 26% below the company’s 2012 capex spend of $17.5bn. Management continues to guide to 2014 capex of $11bn and 2015 capex of $8bn. This capex reduction combined with further earnings growth should lead to strong growth in Rio’s free cash flow. We expect Rio’s free cash flow yield to increase to approximately 13% by 2016.
Deleveraging in progress: The combination of stronger-than-expected operating cash flow and a significant decline in capex resulted in substantial deleveraging for Rio as the company’s net debt fell from $22.1bn at 30 June 2013 to $18.1bn at 31 December. While debt reduction continues to be a priority for Rio, the company now has one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector, with net debt/LTM EBITDA of 0.86x and net debt/ forward EBITDA of just 0.76x. Our understanding is that Rio is targeting a net debt level of approximately $15bn, which the company should reach in early 2015.
Dividends for now, dividends + buybacks for 2015: As we expected, Rio announced a 15% increase in its full year dividend, from $1.67 in 2012 to $1.92 in 2013. This dividend increase was in line with our forecast, but our forecast was the top of the consensus range. We expect further dividend growth from Rio in the years ahead, and we expect the company to announce a $3-5bn share buyback programme when it reports full year 2014 results next February as its deleveraging process should be nearly complete by then.
Rio continues to be our top pick: In light of its strong balance sheet, significant organic volume growth, ongoing unit cost reductions, bottom of the cost curve iron ore business, conservative management, low operating risk, low geopolitical risk, and discount equity valuation (trading at 9.1x 2014E earnings and 5.3x 2014E EBITDA versus the sector averages of 11.2x and 6.0x, respectively), Rio continues to be our top pick in the sector."

Finally some good news and new recent highs. Encouraging Jefferies note. Divi surprised most and bodes well for the future.