Corporate brochure - Diverse places (PDF 2.36 MB) - Rio Tinto

Diverse places
A global journey to many of Rio Tinto’s
operating sites near and far.

01 Welcome to Rio Tinto
02 The origins of Rio Tinto
02 Our global reach
04 Major Group operations
06 North America
08 Antelope
12 Boron
16 Diavik
20 Bingham Canyon
24 Australia
26 Pilbara Iron
30 Hail Creek
34 Dampier
38 Gladstone
42 South America
44 Corumbá
48 Africa
50 Rössing
54 Madagascar
58 Europe
60 Kleinfeistritz
64 Diverse contributions

Rio Tinto invests in large, long life
mines, such as Cortez in Nevada, US.
Welcome to Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining
group, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London
listed public company headquartered in
the UK, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is
listed on the Australian Stock Exchange,
with executive offices in Melbourne.
The companies are joined in a “dual listed companies” (DLC)
structure as a single economic entity, called the Rio Tinto Group.
The DLC places shareholders of both companies in substantially
the same position as if they held shares in a single enterprise
owning all of the assets of both companies. Nevertheless, both
companies remain legal entities with separate share listings
and registers.
Rio Tinto’s fundamental objective is to maximise the overall long
term financial return to its shareholders by operating responsibly
and sustainably in areas of proven expertise where the Group has
competitive advantage. Its strategy is to maximise net present
value (NPV) by investing in large, long life, cost competitive mines.
Investments are driven by the quality of opportunity, not choice of
commodity or country.
Rio Tinto’s mining interests produce a broad range of products
in diverse places around the world. The Group consists of wholly
and partly owned subsidiaries, jointly controlled assets, jointly
controlled entities and associated companies.
Wherever Rio Tinto operates, the health and safety of employees
is the first priority. The Group seeks to contribute to sustainable
development. It works as closely as possible with host countries
and communities, respecting their laws and customs, and
minimising the effects of its activities on the environment.
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02
The origins of Rio Tinto
The Rio Tinto Company was formed by investors in 1873 to mine
ancient copper workings at Rio Tinto in southern Spain. The
Consolidated Zinc Corporation was incorporated in 1905, initially
to treat zinc bearing mine waste at Broken Hill, New South Wales,
Australia.
The RTZ Corporation (formerly The Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation)
was formed in 1962 by the merger of The Rio Tinto Company
and The Consolidated Zinc Corporation. CRA Limited (formerly
Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Limited) was formed at the same time
by a merger of the Australian interests of The Consolidated Zinc
Corporation and The Rio Tinto Company. Between 1962 and 1995,
RTZ and CRA discovered important mineral deposits, developed
major mining projects and also grew through acquisition.
RTZ and CRA were unified in December 1995 through a dual listed
companies (DLC) merger. In June 1997, The RTZ Corporation
and CRA Limited changed their respective names to Rio Tinto plc
and Rio Tinto Limited, together known as the Rio Tinto Group.
Since the 1995 DLC merger, the Group has continued to invest in
developments and acquisitions in keeping with its strategy of
maximising value to shareholders.
Our global reach
The Rio Tinto Group comprises 30 businesses that control
80 operations in 20 countries, employing more than 30,000 people.
Taking into account mineral exploration and other business activities,
Rio Tinto has a presence in about 40 countries.
Our businesses include open pit and underground mines, mills,
refineries and smelters as well as a number of research and service
facilities around the globe.
Visit a representative sampling of our diverse operations in the
following pages.

1873
The Rio Tinto Company
(UK)
Rio Tinto plc
(UK)
1962
Merger
The Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation
renamed The RTZ Corporation
(UK)
1905
The Consolidated Zinc Corporation
(UK)
1995
DLC merger
Rio Tinto Group
Conzinc Riotinto of Australia
renamed CRA
(Australia)
Rio Tinto Limited
(Australia)
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04
Major Group
operations
Iron ore and Iron
Operating sites
01 Corumbá
02 Hamersley Iron mines:
Brockman
Marandoo
Mt Tom Price
Nammuldi
Paraburdoo
Yandicoogina
Channar (60%)
Eastern Range (54%)
03 Robe River mines: (53%)
West Angelas
Pannawonica
04 HIsmelt ® (60%)
05 Iron Ore Company of Canada (59%)
Projects
06 IOC Pellet Plant (59%)
07 Simandou (95%)
08 Orissa (51%)
Energy
Operating sites
09 Antelope
10 Bengalla (30%)
11 Blair Athol (71%)
12 Colowyo (20%)
13 Cordero Rojo
14 Decker (50%)
15 Spring Creek
16 Hail Creek (82%)
17 Hunter Valley Operations (76%)
18 Jacobs Ranch
19 Kestrel (80%)
20 Mt Thorley Operations (61%)
21 Tarong
22 Warkworth (42%)
23 ERA (68%)
24 Rössing (69%)
Projects
25 Clermont (50%)
26 Mt Pleasant (76%)
Industrial minerals
Operating sites
27 Boron
28 Coudekerque Plant
29 Tincalayu
30 Wilmington Plant
31 Dampier (65%)
32 Lake MacLeod (65%)
33 Port Hedland (65%)
34 Ludlow
35 Talc de Luzenac
36 Yellowstone
37 Three Springs
38 QIT-Fer et Titane Lac Allard
39 QIT-Fer et Titane Sorel Plant
40 Richards Bay Minerals (50%)
Projects
41 Rio Colorado Potash
42 QIT Madagascar Minerals (80%)
Aluminium
Operating sites
43 Anglesey Aluminium (51%)
44 Bell Bay
45 Boyne Island (59%)
46 Yarwun alumina refinery
47 Gladstone Power Station (42%)
48 Queensland Alumina (39%)
49 Tiwai Point (79%)
50 Weipa
Copper
Operating sites
51 Bougainville (not operating) (54%)
52 Cortez/Pipeline (40%)
53 Escondida (30%)
54 Grasberg joint venture (40%)
55 Kennecott Utah Copper
56 Northparkes (80%)
57 Palabora (58%)
58 Rawhide (51%)
59 Greens Creek (70%)
Projects
60 Resolution (55%)
61 Eagle
62 La Granja
63 Oyu Tolgoi (10%)
Diamonds
Operating sites
64 Argyle
65 Diavik (60%)
66 Murowa (78%)

Greens Creek 59
Yellowstone 36
Kennecott Utah Copper 55
Cortez/Pipeline 52
Rawhide 58
Wilmington Plant 30
Diavik 65
12 Colowyo
60 Resolution
27 Boron
Iron Ore Company of Canada 05
IOC Pellet Plant 06
QIT-Fer et Titane Sorel Plant 39
14 Decker
15 Spring Creek
61 Eagle
09 Antelope
13 Cordero Rojo
18 Jacobs Ranch
La Granja 62
Escondida 53
Rio Colorado Potash 41
34 Ludlow
29 Tincalayu
38 QIT-Fer et Titane Lac Allard
01 Corumbá
Anglesey Aluminium 43
Coudekerque Plant 28
Talc de Luzenac 35
Simandou 07
Rössing 24
66 Murowa
57 Palabora
40 Richards Bay Minerals
42 QIT Madagascar Minerals
08 Orissa
63 Oyu Tolgoi
Port Hedland 33
Dampier 31
Lake MacLeod 32
Three Springs 37
HIsmelt ® 04
Grasberg joint venture 54
Argyle 64
ERA 23
Weipa 50
02 Hamersley Iron mines
03 Robe River mines
Bougainville 51
44 Bell Bay
21 Tarong
56 Northparkes 49 Tiwai Point
11 Blair Athol
16 Hail Creek
19 Kestrel
25 Clermont
45 Boyne Island
46 Yarwun alumina refinery
47 Gladstone power station
48 Queensland Alumina
10 Bengalla
17 Hunter Valley Operations
20 Mt Thorley Operations
22 Warkworth
26 Mt Pleasant

Rio Tinto concentrates on the development of first class orebodies
into large, long life and efficient mines, capable of sustaining
competitive advantage through fluctuations in the business cycle.
Investments are driven by the quality of each opportunity rather
than by a predetermined choice of commodity.
The Group’s activities span the world but are strongly represented
in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South
America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa. Our businesses include
open pit and underground mines, mills, refineries and smelters as
well as a number of research and service facilities around the globe.
Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy products
(coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, talc, titanium
dioxide and salt), and iron ore.
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North America
A blue sky view over the Salt Lake
Valley on the eastern side of Bingham
Canyon Mine.

Antelope
Main image: A blast of explosives
opens access to coal resources.
1 Heavy duty trains take coal
to power stations.
2 Trains are loaded from coal
storage silos.
3 Lockout tags for safety.
In Wyoming’s coal country, Rio Tinto Energy America (RTEA) is
based in Gillette, the “Energy Capital of the US” and manages
five open cut coal mines, including Antelope.
The great northern plains of Wyoming form the Powder River
Basin, edging into Montana to the north and South Dakota to
the north east. This is the land of the legendary American west,
of cowboys and Indians, cattle rustlers and herds of buffalo.
Overlooked to the west by the mountains of the continental divide,
the great plains form a limitless landscape covered with short
prairie grass.
The coal mines form a chain south of Gillette, following outcropping
coal seams believed to have formed from the organic detritus of
a vast inland sea 500 million years ago. The US has an estimated
245 billion tonnes of recoverable coal in existing mines, about twice
as much energy in coal as Saudi Arabia has in oil. This could last
a few centuries or more – and nearly half of it is in the Powder River
Basin. RTEA is the largest coal producer and accounts for about
a third of production.
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3
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Antelope
1 2
At Antelope the coal seam is about 10 metres thick, overlain by
about 33 metres of earth. Mining is a simple process, using the
largest land based equipment available. A “dragline” the size of
a three storey building, with an arm nearly as long as a football
pitch, scrapes soil and rock away to expose the coal seam. Coal
is blasted, loaded, hauled in 240 ton trucks to a crusher station,
then conveyed to silos. It is a continuous process of “just in time”
delivery. The silos are filled from the mine as fast as the coal
is carried away by the 140 car trains. They snake through the
loading stations beneath the silos to pick up coal for distant
power stations. The loadouts ship six or seven trains a day each
carrying 15,000 tons of coal. For millions of consumers, the light
that comes on with a flick of a switch starts here.

3
1 A “walking” dragline removes rock
and earth to expose the coal seam.
2 Blasting along long horizontal seams
of pure coal which occur near the
surface of the land.
3 Trains of 140 cars operate on
dedicated railways.
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Boron
Main image: Rio Tinto Minerals and
its predecessors have been extracting
multi-purpose borates from this site in
California for more than 130 years.
1 Aerial view of Rio Tinto Minerals’
Boron Operations mine and refineries
in the Mojave Desert, California, US.
2 Famous 20 mule teams haul borates
out of Death Valley from the company’s
original borate mine.
One thing flourishes in Death Valley and that’s borates. Rio Tinto
Minerals operates California’s largest open pit mine at Boron
in the Mojave Desert. This is one of the richest borate deposits
on the planet. Borates are a generic term for boron compounds
that contain oxygen, minerals essential to life and modern living
and an ingredient in hundreds of products. The deposit has been
mined for nearly 80 years and is estimated to have enough
resources for another 75 years of production. Rio Tinto supplies
nearly half the world’s demand for refined borates.
Borate deposits were discovered in Death Valley in 1872. Borax
used to haul ore out of the remote desert on high sided wagons
drawn by mule teams. The loaded wagons carrying ten tonnes –
about one tenth the capacity of a modern rail car – had to be
hauled 265 kilometres up and out of Death Valley, over the steep
Panamint Mountains and across the desert to the nearest railway
junction at Mojave. The 20 day round trip started 58 metres below
sea level and climbed to an elevation of 600 metres. The task
was achieved by hitching two ten mule teams together to form
a 30 metre long, 20 mule team. The 20 Mule Team Borax product
brand lives on as a symbol of the company’s commitment to
innovation.
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1
1 Rio Tinto Minerals’ primary borates
refining operation in California’s
Mojave Desert.

Boron
2 Joshua Trees grow wild in the Mojave
Desert which surrounds the mine.
3 A view over Boron’s conveyor line
and secondary crusher.
The Boron mine open pit measures 1.6 kilometres wide,
2.4 kilometres long and up to 210 metres deep. More than
80 different types of mineral are found of which the four main
types of borates are tincal, kernite, ulexite and colemanite.
The ore is mined at a rate of about three million tonnes per year
to produce about one million tonnes of borax, boric acid
and anhydrous products. A fleet of nearly 800 rail cars, the
modern version of the 20 mule teams, transport borates to
North American customers and the central shipping facility
at the Port of Los Angeles.
2
3
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Diavik
(Rio Tinto 60 per cent)
Main image: Diavik diamond mine in
Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Photograph: © Jiri Hermann
1 Caribou on the Canadian tundra near
the Diavik mine.
North western Canada above the 60th parallel is a patchwork
quilt of lakes big and small that dot the land in such profusion it is
not clear whether this is land interspersed with lakes or a body of
water broken by islands. Beneath one of these lakes, Lac de Gras,
300 kilometres north east of Yellowknife the capital of the
Northwest Territories, lies a store of diamonds in kimberlite pipes.
These are carrot shaped roots of ancient volcanoes that brought
the gems from deep within the earth.
Diamond mining is a relatively simple operation, requiring loading,
hauling and dumping of gravels, and processing to extract the
valuable stones. But how to mine a lake bed?
Diavik’s kimberlite pipes are located just off shore, so water
diversion structures, called dikes, were built to temporarily hold
back the waters to allow mining. The A154 rockfill dike contains
four million tonnes of rubble. When the dike was in place, fish in the
enclosed water were caught and released outside, and the water
was pumped out. When mining is completed in about 20 years’
time, the dikes will be breached and the excavations flooded.
1
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Diavik
(Rio Tinto 60 per cent)
1
The first dike, the 3.9 kilometre A154 dike, was made watertight in
July 2002. It was pumped dry three months later. The dike averages
10 metres high and is 28 metres at its deepest. Construction of
a second dike started in 2005 for completion by the end of 2006
to permit mining of the A418 orebody from 2008. Diavik produces
about eight million carats of high quality gemstones a year.
The remote site is supplied by air and by freight trucks using an
ice road made across the frozen lakes during the coldest part of
the winter. About a third of the workforce is made up of indigenous
people, backed by pre-employment training initiatives in mining
operations, mineral processing, trades apprenticeships and
leadership development. Most of the purchasing of supplies is
done locally to support northern Canadian businesses.
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3
1 Flowers bloom on the sub-arctic
tundra.
2 Ploughing the road not only removes
the drifting snow but also helps the ice
grow thicker.
3 The Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter
road is amongst the world’s busiest
seasonal ice roads.
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Bingham
Canyon
1
Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon mine is an American
superlative – it has produced more copper than any mine in history,
about 17 million tonnes. More than 100 years ago it was found by
accident and no one dreamt of the scale of what had been
discovered.
The mine area outside Salt Lake City, Utah, was first settled in
1848 by Thomas and Sanford Bingham. Fifteen years later soldiers
stationed nearby, many of whom were ex-miners from the California
gold rush of 1849, recognised the significance of mineralised rocks
on the hillsides.
Modern geology describes the deposit as a vast igneous plug of
mineralised material formed 30 to 40 million years ago. It was the
throat of a volcanic eruption. Weathered and exposed at the surface
it goes down like the roots of a molar tooth 2,000 metres into the
earth. Over the years until 1906, miners honeycombed the “richest
hill on earth” with a labyrinth of shafts and tunnels to produce
lead, silver and gold. There are still more than 3,000 kilometres of
underground workings in the mountainsides even though the open
pit has swallowed most of the mineralised area.
2
Main image: Bird’s eye view of
Bingham Canyon copper mine in
Utah, US.
1 The Kennecott smelter produces
copper metal from the ore mined at
Bingham Canyon.
2 Acid rail cars lined up to be filled with
sulphuric acid, which is a by product of
the copper production process.

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1
1 The Oquirrh Mountains and foothills
in springtime.
2 A view from visitors centre.
3 The western side of the mine and the
snow covered peaks of The Oquirrh
Mountains.
4 Bingham Canyon has a fleet of 56
255 ton haul trucks.
5 A new access road being laid for the
removal of ore from a new mining area.

Bingham
Canyon
Copper didn’t feature at first because it wasn’t concentrated
enough to be mined profitably. What changed everything was
consolidation of the numerous claims that webbed the centre of
today’s Bingham Canyon mine into the hands of one company,
Utah Copper, in 1903. This was the prelude to the introduction
of a revolutionary new concept – open pit mining made profitable
by the relative speed and large scale of excavation.
By 1906 the rail mounted steam shovels that had dug the Panama
Canal were excavating ore at the then unheard of rate of five tonnes
a scoop. Today’s giant mobile electric shovels remove 100 tonnes,
equivalent in weight to 50 automobiles, with each swing of the
bucket.
The mine underpins a refinery and smelter complex that produces
335,000 tonnes per year of 99.9 per cent pure copper sheets,
supplying ten per cent of annual US refined copper requirements
and employing about 1,600 people. Kennecott Utah Copper,
which was acquired by Rio Tinto in 1989, has spent more than
US$350 million cleaning up water resources and reclaiming land
from historic mining.
2 4
3
5
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Australia
Aerial shot of red earth, loader and
haul truck.

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Drilling makes a blast hole pattern
in an iron ore mine, Pilbara, Western
Australia.

Pilbara Iron
1 Giant stackers blend ore before
shipment in bulk carriers.
Western Australia’s spectacular Pilbara landscape runs red
with iron. Hematite, an iron ore mineral, gets its name from the
blood red streak it gives when rubbed across a rough surface.
Ordinarily, iron makes up about five per cent of the Earth’s crust,
but concentrations called banded iron formations are 14 times
higher in the Pilbara. The iron ore fields are huge. The Hamersley
ore province is roughly the size of Portugal. The largest orebodies,
such as Rio Tinto’s Mount Tom Price, contain several billion tonnes
of ore and are mined almost continuously over distances that
approach 10 kilometres.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO) is the largest iron ore producer in the
Pilbara. It has unrivalled operational flexibility with nine mines and
three ports served by an integrated rail system. It owns Hamersley
Iron as well as Rio Tinto’s 53 per cent interest in Robe River Iron
Associates, acquired in 2000. In 2003 Rio Tinto reached agreement
with its joint venture partners in Robe River to allow closer
cooperation between the Pilbara operations of Hamersley Iron
and Robe River.
1
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Pilbara Iron
As a result, Pilbara Iron was formed as a new entity to enable
the sharing of rail, port and power infrastructure as well as
management of non-infrastructure assets, including mobile
and other mining equipment, and site and corporate services.
Coordination has been progressively implemented to the extent
that Pilbara Iron manages RTIO’s iron ore assets in the Pilbara as
an optimised and integrated operation. Both Hamersley Iron and
Robe River remain independent and retain separate marketing
functions.
The process of mining involves loaders carving the land and
heaping ore into giant dump trucks the size of a house. The ore is
conveyed kilometres across the landscape, then loaded into rail
cars that form trains two kilometres long hauled by two locomotives.
After a 400 kilometre journey to the coast, at the port of Dampier
the ore is stacked into 60,000 tonne piles, ready for blending to
customer requirements and loading into massive Capesize vessels
to be shipped to steel mills in Asia and elsewhere.
The Pilbara has been the recipient of Rio Tinto’s single largest
project investment. Reflecting strong demand for iron ore
particularly from China for infrastructure development, nearly
US$4 billion was invested in mine, rail and port expansion
from 2005 to 2007.
1 2

3
1 Loading iron ore for export at a
Rio Tinto port in Western Australia.
2 Inspecting a stockpile of iron ore.
Products are blended to meet the
needs of steel mill customers.
3 Rio Tinto operates one of the world’s
biggest private railway systems to get
its iron ore to port.
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Hail Creek
(Rio Tinto 82 per cent)
1 2
Main image: The Hail Creek coal
preparation plant.
1 Developing the new Hail Creek mine
in Australia.
2 Coal is stockpiled for shipment.
The Hail Creek mine sits on one of the world’s largest coking
coal deposits, the sort of coal used for making steel. This makes
it strange that it took so long to develop the mine after discovery
of the deposit in 1968. It illustrates the value of patience and
thoroughness and the need to align the product with market
demand.
The project was under study on and off for 30 years. Several
promising attempts to develop the mine were scuttled by a
coincidence of factors that included periodic recessions in the
global steel market, a federal government tax imposition and
increases in labour costs.
Construction started in 2003 with the Brisbane based project team
adopting a “four project” strategy, letting separate contracts to
specialist companies in the four major component areas: dragline,
coal preparation plant, railway and general infrastructure.

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1
1 Hail creek produces valuable coking
coal and is increasing production to
meet demand.

Hail Creek
(Rio Tinto 82 per cent)
2 Maintenance work on big machinery.
The mine was commissioned in late 2003 within budget and a
month ahead of schedule as a 5.5 million tonnes per year operation.
It came on stream at exactly the right time to take advantage of
buoyant conditions in the coking coal market, a factor that had
eluded the project for so many years previously. Acceptance for
the product was so strong in all markets that work began almost
immediately on expanding capacity to eight million tonnes per year
for completion in 2006. This is an excellent example of how
Rio Tinto’s focus on assets with large reserves provides options
to expand in line with demand.
A turning point towards achieving commercial viability for the
project came from a Japanese customer who suggested Hail Creek
produce two coking coal products – a high value, low ash coal for
which steel makers would pay a premium when their furnaces were
working at full capacity, and a cheaper medium ash product for
times when flagging demand meant steel production was curtailed.
This flexibility would allow Hail Creek to adapt more readily to
market demands.
Hail Creek coal is used in steel plants across east Asia and the Indian
subcontinent. Japan and China look likely to remain the biggest
customers.
2
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Dampier
(Rio Tinto 65 per cent)
Main image: Evaporation ponds at
Dampier Operations.
1 One of several hundred Aboriginal
rock engravings protected by Rio Tinto
Minerals on its property at Dampier.
2 Loading dry salt for transfer to
Dampier harbour salt loading facility.
Dazzling white salt from the sea, manufactured by energy from
the sun. That’s Rio Tinto Minerals – Dampier Operations in Western
Australia, one of Rio Tinto’s more unusual mineral production sites.
Since the first shipment of 19,000 tonnes in April 1972, to Central
Glass in Japan, annual sales from Dampier Operations have
increased from one million to eight million tonnes per year.
The company’s capacity was boosted by the purchase of the
Lake MacLeod operation in 1978 and the Port Hedland operation
in 2001. The annual production capacity is nine million tonnes.
Salt is mainly used in the chemical industry in the production of
plastics, glass, detergents and a variety of chemicals. The major
markets are in Asia.
In 1997 Rio Tinto Minerals also commissioned a 1.5 million tonnes
per year gypsum operation at Lake MacLeod, which provides
high quality, natural gypsum to the wallboard, plaster, cement
and agriculture markets in Africa, Asia and Australia.
1
2

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1

Dampier
(Rio Tinto 65 per cent)
1 Rio Tinto Minerals’ gypsum mining
operation at Lake MacLeod, NW
Australia.
2 Harvesting salt at Dampier.
At Dampier and Port Hedland salt is produced from seawater.
The solar energy used in evaporation is equivalent to consuming
about 27 million tonnes of coal per annum. The seawater flows
through a series of ponds. The marine ecosystem is managed
in the ponds to control nutrients and marine growth that would
otherwise become unbalanced and affect salt quality. Different
varieties of sea life are maintained, particularly milkfish and brine
shrimp which eat the nutrients coming in with the seawater which
helps keep the brine clear. Evaporation, due to the energy of the
sun and assisted by the wind, results in the water becoming
progressively more concentrated.
When the brine is saturated with salt (sodium chloride) it is pumped
into crystallising ponds where further evaporation causes salt to
crystallise as a solid deposit. The brine which remains after most
of the salt has crystallised, called bitterns, is returned to the ocean.
The salt is washed to remove impurities and stockpiled for shipment.
Dedicated stockpile and ship loading facilities are located at
Mistaken Island, Dampier, and the port of Port Hedland.
At Lake MacLeod, the mined gypsum is sorted and leached in
stockpiles using water to reduce the level of impurities to produce
a saleable product. Salt and gypsum are shipped from dedicated
facilities at the port of Cape Cuvier.
2
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Gladstone
Main image: Gladstone, adjacent to
the Great Barrier Reef.
1 Mining bauxite ore at Weipa bound
for Gladstone.
Gladstone, a port city in central Queensland, Australia, is a major
processing and manufacturing centre for Rio Tinto Aluminium (RTA).
The city has the greatest concentration of Rio Tinto Group assets
in the world. It is the home of the Boyne Island aluminium smelter
(Rio Tinto 59 per cent), the Yarwun alumina refinery, the Gladstone
Power Station (Rio Tinto 42 per cent), and Queensland Alumina
(Rio Tinto 39 per cent).
Gladstone is linked to RTA’s Weipa bauxite mine in far northern
Queensland. Bulk carriers belonging to Rio Tinto Shipping bring
the raw material down the coast to Gladstone for the two alumina
refineries.
RTA began producing bauxite from its Weipa mine in 1963 and,
in the same year, became a partner in the construction of the
Queensland Alumina refinery, the world’s largest. It is owned by
a consortium of three international companies. Alumina production
commenced in March 1967, using bauxite from Weipa. Power is
mostly supplied by the Gladstone Power Station.
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1
1 Conveyor belts transport bauxite for
shipment at Lorim Point, Weipa
Australia.
2 Steel balls used in the bauxite
grinding mill at Yarwun, Gladstone.
3 Pipes aid “digestion” of bauxite ore in
making alumina at Yarwun, Gladstone.

Gladstone
2 3
Rio Tinto Aluminium Yarwun, an alumina refinery, is situated
north-west of Gladstone, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.
The refinery was built at a capital cost of US$750 million. Initial
shipments from the 1.4 million tonnes per year plant started
in early 2005. Alumina is used to produce aluminium at RTA
smelters and the balance is placed in the traded alumina market.
The refinery design allows for further expansion which could see
production increased to more than four million tonnes per annum.
Boyne Smelters Limited started in 1982 and is Australia’s largest
aluminium smelter. It produces more than half a million tonnes
of aluminium each year from its three reduction lines. Production
includes aluminium production (smelting) in reduction lines, and
casting of molten metal into aluminium products.
In 1994, a RTA led consortium purchased the 1,680 megawatt
Gladstone Power Station from the Queensland Government
in order to secure a power supply that would permit the expansion
and upgrading of Boyne Smelters. It is Queensland’s largest coal
fired power station.
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South America
Mineralised rock formations at the
Corumbá iron ore mine, Western Brazil.

44
Corumbá
1 Corumbá neighbours the spectacular
Pantanal wetlands.
The Corumbá iron ore mine takes its name from Corumbá, a city
close to the mine in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The
city is a river port on the Paraguay River, a junction on the railway
to the Bolivian border nearby, and a trade centre for a large pastoral
region. It is located on the edge of the Pantanal, one of the world’s
biggest and most spectacular wetland systems.
The Pantanal is an immense landlocked river delta where annual
floodwaters regularly rise several metres and then recede,
providing a life giving pulse for abundant and diverse plants and
animals. It extends through millions of hectares of central western
Brazil, eastern Bolivia and eastern Paraguay. With its extraordinarily
concentrated flora and fauna, and a landscape spanning a variety
of ecological sub-regions, the Pantanal stands as one of the
world’s great natural wonders.
The Corumbá open pit mine is located outside the city. Ore
production started in 1978 and Rio Tinto acquired an interest in
1991. The Group increased its holding from 80 per cent to
100 per cent in 1999.
1

Iron ore from Corumbá is transported
by barges on the Paraguay river to
customers.
45

46
1
1 A stockpile of high grade iron ore
destined for South American and
European customers.

Corumbá
2
The mine has the highest grade of iron ore of any mine in the Group
at 67 per cent iron. However it also has the smallest production
by far at about two million tonnes of lump iron ore a year. It has
been constrained by its landlocked geography, having to rely on
river transport to move its bulk product to market. The ore is loaded
on to barges operated by Rio Tinto Brazil’s barging operation,
Transbarge Navegaçion, based in Asunción, Paraguay. It uses
“pushboats” to convey loaded barges of iron ore along the
Paraguay River for delivery to South American and European
customers.
Due to the strong world wide demand for iron ore, the feasibility
of expanding production at the mine in stages to 15 million tonnes
per annum is under study. During 2005, the mine and plant were
expanded to two million tonnes per annum capacity, and a new
barge convoy was added to the fleet. Logistic options are being
considered for expanded export sales, including iron ore supplies
to a proposed steel making project at Corumbá. The mine has
over 200 million tonnes of reserves and over 400 million tonnes
of additional resources. There are approximately 450 employees.
3
2 Iron ore producing operations at
Corumbá.
3 The iron ore mine is ripe for expansion.
47

48
Africa

A view of the open pit at Rössing
Uranium in the Namib desert.
49

50
Rössing
(Rio Tinto 69 per cent)
“Trolley assist” – the use of an electric
supply grid to power trucks ascending
the ramps saves diesel fuel and
greenhouse gas emissions. It also
helps to lower operating costs.
Rössing Uranium in Namibia, southern Africa, was the jewel in the
crown of Rio Tinto’s mining portfolio when it opened in 1976. It was
a time when copper and uranium were the Group’s major mined
products. Rössing reached full production in 1979, and with good
timing the uranium price went up to about US$45 per pound in the
early 1980s.
Rössing is located in the Namib Desert 65 kilometres inland from
the coastal town of Swakopmund. The mine was meant to have
been depleted after 20 years, but in 2006 celebrated 30 years
of operation. It has been called the great survivor. In spite of very
low grade ore of 0.04 per cent uranium oxide it has continued
operations during a long period of prices that have been a fraction
of what they were in the 1980s – as low at US$8 per pound. It still
ranks as one of the biggest uranium mines in the world, accounting
for approximately eight per cent of world production.
The 30 year mine life is set to become 40. The mine was to have
closed in 2009, but with uranium prices rising as a result of
increased interest in nuclear energy, at the end of 2005 Rio Tinto
approved an extension project that will add ten years to the mine.
About half the US$112 million expansion cost is for additional
shovels, haul trucks and other mining equipment. The processing
plant is being refurbished to enable Rössing to return to its full
production capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year by 2008.

52
1

Rössing
(Rio Tinto 69 per cent)
1 Ammonium diurenate uranium
being poured into a beaker in the final
product recovery section at Rössing
Uranium mine. This is processed into
uranium oxide, the final product.
2 Swakopmund is a busy commercial
and tourism centre where many of the
mine staff live.
The mine product uranium oxide concentrate (U 3O 8) is a dark olive
green powder – the popular term “yellowcake” refers to the colour
of the U 3O 8 before it is dried. The concentrate is inert and no more
radioactive than when it was in the ground. It is packed in 200 litre
steel drums which are marked, labelled and placarded according
to International Atomic Energy Agency regulations. Drums in
containers are shipped to overseas customers through the port
of Walvis Bay. The uranium oxide is sold to electricity utilities
in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific.
To make it of any use, the mined uranium must be converted to a
gas, uranium hexaflouride, which is “enriched” by rearranging its
isotopes. There are only a few processing facilities in the world that
can enrich uranium. The resulting material is fabricated into fuel
rods which are clustered into fuel assemblies for power stations.
2
53

54
The site of the proposed port in
Toalagnaro (Fort-Dauphin), showing
the rocky point from which the
breakwater will be built.

Madagascar
(Rio Tinto 80 per cent)
1 The morning skyline of the ‘Haute-Ville’
district of Madagascar’s capital
Antananarivo. Known as ‘Tana’ the city
is a colourful mixture of architectural
styles from various periods in history.
The island of Madagascar is a special place and Rio Tinto is building
a new kind of mining operation there. In the biggest investment
made in the country, Rio Tinto will spend US$850 million on
development of an ilmenite mining operation and port in south
eastern Madagascar and the upgrade of facilities in Canada to
process the production.
The ilmenite project is intended to be a model of how mining can
contribute to sustainable development through the successful
integration of financial, environmental and community objectives.
Ilmenite is a mineral used to produce titanium dioxide, used as
a pigment in paints and coatings and to make specialty iron.
The development is the largest project in Madagascar’s history
and will be the catalyst for broader economic development of
the country. It is being developed by Rio Tinto through a wholly
owned Malagasy subsidiary QIT Madagascar Minerals which
owns 80 per cent of the project with the Government of
Madagascar 20 per cent. Mine production begins in late 2008
with an initial capacity of 750,000 tonnes per year of ilmenite.
Once operating at full capacity, annual payments to the government
in taxes, royalties and dividends will exceed US$20 million per year.
The mine will create some 600 direct jobs, plus several thousand
indirectly through the support of local businesses.
For six years prior to the production decision, Rio Tinto supported
a regional planning process to help define the region’s future and
the potential role of the mine. A deep sea multi-use public port at
Ehoala, near the project and the town of Fort-Dauphin, will be an
important component of the project. The mine will be a key initial
customer, providing the main load to help establish the port.
1
55

56
Madagascar
(Rio Tinto 80 per cent)
1 Building the road between mine site
and port.
Rio Tinto began geological exploration in the Fort-Dauphin region
in the late 1980s, followed by preliminary social and environmental
studies in the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, a full time social and
environmental programme was set up to ensure that the project
would develop in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
The mineral sand deposit is to be mined by a conventional floating
dredge, which will slowly wind its way through the deposit. Ahead
of the dredge, the vegetation will be removed and topsoil stored
for use in rehabilitation. The dredged sand, up to 20 metres deep,
is passed through spirals to gravity separate the approximately
five per cent heavy minerals from the 95 per cent residual sand.
The heavy mineral concentrate is then dried and fed to separators
to extract ilmenite from the non-commercial residual minerals,
which are returned to the mining pond. The product is then trucked
about 15 kilometres along a new road to the port for shipment to
Canada or for sale directly to customers.
Following mining, the land is rehabilitated with native species or
planted with fast growing trees to provide a sustainable source
of fuel wood and charcoal to the local population and thereby
reduce pressure on the residual native forest blocks, including the
conservation zones Rio Tinto has established in partnership with
the authorities and the local communities.
While the ilmenite mine will necessitate the removal of some forest
blocks, most of the area of the deposit has already been cleared
or highly degraded over the years by the local population. To help
protect endemic species, Rio Tinto agreed to forego mining of
about 12 per cent of the deposit to allow the establishment of three
conservation zones.
1

2
3
2 An adult literary class jointly funded
by Rio Tinto and the United Nations.
3 As part of QMM’s research into
environmental rehabilitation rushes
have been planted in artificial beds
demonstrating that it is possible to
raise these plants as part of a
rehabilitation programme.
57

58
Europe
The Respina talc mine in Spain.

Kleinfeistritz
Main image: The entrance to the new
Plastorit ® Bergbau Kleinfeistritz mine,
Austria.
1 Each miner at Kleinfeistritz mine
is able to perform a number of roles,
working in three daily shifts, of two
men per shift.
2 The rare mineral produced protects
the outer hull of the Queen Mary 2 liner.
Photograph: © Frank Naylor/Alamy
Rio Tinto Minerals runs the smallest mine in the Rio Tinto Group.
Located in the rolling hills of Styria, south Austria, this “boutique”
mine contrasts with Rio Tinto’s hallmark operations that deliver
mega quantities of minerals to the world. And Kleinfeistritz can lay
claim to its exclusivity for a long while, as its planned life is 60 years.
The Kleinfeistritz underground mine employs just six miners.
They extract a very special mineral called leucophyllite, a natural
coalescence of mica, chlorite and quartz. Silvery to the eye and
slippery to the touch, it is processed into a high value product.
Its primary use is as an additive in paint. It is marketed globally
as Plastorit ® , mainly added to anti-corrosive paints, putties
and other coatings. For example, the hull of the giant cruise liner
Queen Mary 2 is protected with a Plastorit ® rich coating.
1
2
61

62
Kleinfeistritz
1 Weisskirchen Village, close to
Plastorit ® Bergbau Kleinfeistritz mine,
in Austria.
2 The view from the Schlossberg
Fortress in the historic town of Graz.
With its talc orebody nearing depletion, an extensive exploration
campaign in 2002 and 2003 by Kleinfeistritz Operations led to the
discovery of a new deposit nearby. The analysed drilling samples
showed that the ore corresponded well to the quality of the existing
mine and that there were no quality related risks for finished
products made with product from the new deposit.
After an intensive project evaluation and planning period, the
new Plastorit ® Bergbau Kleinfeistritz mine project was approved
and production begins in 2007. The new orebody will be mined
by a method called cut and fill in which the extracted stopes are
refilled with concrete. This minimises the effect on the surface
and ensures safe working conditions underground.
Ore is processed 10 kilometres away at Weisskirchen, a quiet
village with a population of 2,500 people dominated by the
Rio Tinto Minerals’ processing plant. The plant processes about
45,000 tonnes of leucophyllite and talc ore a year from Kleinfeistritz,
other Rio Tinto Minerals talc operations in Austria and France,
and from third party suppliers.
Rio Tinto Minerals’ Austrian interests also include a talc quarry in
eastern Styria, two processing plants, a head office in Graz and
a loading facility on the Danube River near Linz. About 185 people
are employed in the various facilities, including the six miners at
Kleinfeistritz.

1
2
63

64
1
1 Conservation and land restoration go
hand in hand with mining.
2 Ringtailed lemur at the Nahanyoana
Reserve, home to a diverse population
of wildlife in Madagascar.
3 Fragile, long growing desert plants are
transplanted away from planned mining.
Diverse contributions
Mining, smelting and associated activities have an impact on
the global environment with implications for land, water, air and
ecosystems
Rio Tinto accepts the challenge of environmental stewardship.
In doing so, the Group seeks to understand the environmental
aspects and impacts of what it does, including holding informed
discussions on its activities with employees, neighbours, investors
and other interested parties. What is learned is then built into
systems to manage and minimise those effects. In addition,
Rio Tinto conducts several important partnerships with key NGOs
and other organisations that aim to share expertise and improve
environmental performance.
Building on a foundation of compliance with applicable laws and
voluntary commitments wherever the Group operates, Rio Tinto
seeks continuous improvement through applying best practices
appropriate to local situations. Targets are set for improvements
and progress is publicly reported against them.
The Group has formed a strategy on biodiversity with the help of
outside conservation bodies, it seeks to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, to minimise fresh water use, save energy, and safely
and responsibly manage its mineral and non mineral wastes.
Rio Tinto recognises that climate change (including climatic effects,
policy response, adaptive measures and other residual effects)
will continue to cause changes in the value chains of its products
which will affect the Group’s business. There are many risks to
manage and opportunities to grasp. Rio Tinto has a broad mix of
mineral based products. This means it is well positioned to assist
in society’s response to climate change.
2
3

For convenience, the expression Rio Tinto is used to describe both
Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited and companies within the Group,
even though these companies are generally separate and independently
managed. Ownership: Where Rio Tinto is not the sole owner of a company,
the percentage interest is shown.
Designed by SampsonMay Design
Printed in England by St Ives Westerham Press
© Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto plc
6 St James’s Square
London SW1Y 4LD
United Kingdom
Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399
Rio Tinto Limited
120 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
Australia
Telephone +61 (0)3 9283 3333
www.riotinto.com