Rio Tinto: Fourth quarter 2009 operations review

Thursday, 14 January 2010 12:00 AM

Chief executive Tom Albanese said: "We are seeing recovery across most of our key commodities, although we continue to be cautious on the state of the global economy going into 2010 as stimulus packages start to wind down. This was another very strong quarter for iron ore production, driven by continuing high demand from China. In the Pilbara we achieved record sales for both the quarter and the full year and both global and Pilbara production set new records in 2009. We made good progress in divestments with $1.85 billion of sales completed in the fourth quarter and have now agreed sales of $10.3 billion since we began the divestment programme in 2008."

Rio Tinto's global iron ore production was up 49 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Global iron ore sales set a new quarterly record of 61 million tonnes (100 per cent basis). Rio Tinto's global iron ore production in 2009 exceeded 217 million tonnes (172 million tonnes on an attributable basis), a 13 per cent increase on 2008, and also a new record.

Pilbara iron ore production was 56 million tonnes (45 million tonnes on an attributable basis), up 54 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2008. The Pilbara system consistently operated above its nameplate capacity in order to supply continuing strong growth in demand.

Mined copper production was up 36 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2008 with higher production at all operations, notably at Escondida and Grasberg.

Refined copper production was up 15 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2008 following higher concentrate grades and a further improvement in performance at Kennecott Utah Copper.
Mined gold production exceeded 1.1 million ounces in 2009, 141 per cent above 2008, attributable to higher grades at Kennecott Utah Copper and Grasberg.

Production cutbacks were maintained in the Aluminium group in response to market conditions. Bauxite production was down one per cent, alumina down two per cent and aluminium down three per cent, compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. At the end of 2009 Rio Tinto Alcan's annual run rate was nine per cent lower than at the start of the year.

Australian thermal coal production was up five per cent on the fourth quarter of 2008. Australian hard coking coal production was down two per cent on the same period.

Uranium production was down 20 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2008 due to lower grades at ERA. 2009 full year uranium production was consistent with the prior year.

On 5 December 2009 Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton announced that they had signed binding agreements on the proposed iron ore production joint venture that cover all aspects of how the joint venture will operate and be governed. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton anticipate completion of the production joint venture in the second half of calendar year 2010.

All currency figures in this report are US dollars, and comments refer to Rio Tinto's share of production, unless otherwise stated

About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

Contacts:

Media Relations London
Christina Mills
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 1154
Mobile: +44 (0) 7825 275 605

Nick Cobban
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 1138
Mobile: +44 (0) 7920 041 003

Media Relations, US
Tony Shaffer
Office: +61 (0) 3 9283 3612
Mobile: +1 202 256 3667

Media Relations, Australia
Tony Shaffer
Office: +61 (0) 3 9283 3612
Mobile: +1 202 256 3667

David Luff
Office: +61 (0) 3 9283 3620
Mobile: +61 (0) 419 850 205

Media Relations, Canada
Stefano Bertolli
Office +1 (0) 514 848 8151
Mobile +1 (0) 514 945 1800

Investor Relations, London
Mark Shannon
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 1178
Mobile: +44 (0) 7917 576 597

David Ovington
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 2051
Mobile: +44 (0) 7920 010 978

Investor Relations, North America
Jason Combes
Office: +1 (0) 801 204 2919
Mobile: +1 (0) 801 558 2645

Investor Relations, Australia
Simon Ellinor
Office +61 (0) 7 3361 4365
Mobile +61 (0) 439 102 811

Dave Skinner
Office: +61 (0) 3 9283 3628

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