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%

Rio Tinto announces cash generation of $6.3 billion and cash returns to shareholders of $3.0 billion

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said "Today we have announced total cash returns to shareholders of $3 billion. By driving performance, focusing on cash and allocating it with discipline we are delivering superior cash returns to our shareholders.

"These are strong results: operating cash flow was $6.3 billion and we met our $2 billion cash cost reduction target six months early. We are now shifting gear to focus on the untapped value from our productivity programme and continue to strengthen our portfolio to build higher returns for the future. We announced the sale of our thermal coal business in Australia for $2.7 billion and are making good progress on our compelling growth projects - Oyu Tolgoi, Amrun and Silvergrass."

First half 2017 highlights
- Generated operating cash flow of $6.3 billion, EBITDA1 of $9.0 billion and EBITDA margin2 of 45 per cent.
- Delivered underlying earnings of $3.9 billion and net earnings of $3.3 billion.
- Achieved $2.1 billion of pre-tax sustainable operating cash cost improvements3 in 2016 and 2017 first half, meeting the target six months ahead of schedule.
- Strengthening the portfolio with all three growth projects on track and a $2.7 billion disposal announced in 2017 first half.
- Reduced net debt by $2.0 billion to $7.6 billion, with gross debt4 lowered by $2.5 billion.
- Returning cash to shareholders of $3.0 billion with respect to 2017 first half:
§ Declared interim dividend of 110 US cents per share, equivalent to $2.0 billion.
§ An increased share buy-back of $1.0 billion in Rio Tinto plc shares by the end of 2017.
§ In total represents 75 per cent of 2017 first half underlying earnings.

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5611278

Rio Tinto was slapped with a £27.4m fine by the City watchdog for failings in its financial reporting process relating to the $3.7bn purchase of mining assets in Mozambique, an issue that US regulators have now begun to investigate. The Financial Conduct Authority said Rio Tinto misled investors by failing to carry out an impairment test that would have resulted in a material impairment being made to its 2012 half year results, which it did not remedy until in January 2013 when it wrote off roughly 80% of the value of the investment.