In the third quarter, Rio Tinto achieved a 6% year-on-year increase in Pilbara iron ore shipments, driven by a record 46 million tonnes of output from the new Gudai-Darri mine. The company reported overall Pilbara production of 87 million tonnes for the quarter, up from 82 million tonnes a year earlier. Improved mining fleet utilization contributed to a 4% reduction in unit operating costs, boosting margins despite a global seaborne market that remains highly competitive. Management highlighted that ongoing investments in autonomous haul trucks and predictive maintenance systems have lifted operational uptime to 92%, supporting both volume growth and cost discipline going into next year.

Rio Tinto has entered a two-year collaboration with Amazon Web Services to scale up copper production via its Nuton Technology at the Johnson Camp mine in Arizona. The joint project aims to produce 30,000 tonnes of refined, 99.99% pure copper over four years, using a modular bioleaching process powered by naturally occurring microorganisms. AWS will become the first customer for Nuton copper, incorporating it into U.S. data center components while providing cloud-based analytics to optimize heap leach performance. Rio Tinto expects the digital modeling to improve copper recovery rates by up to 15% and reduce water usage and carbon emissions by 20% compared to conventional methods.

Rio Tinto and BHP have signed two non-binding memoranda of understanding to jointly develop Rio Tinto’s Wunbye deposit and process up to 200 million tonnes of iron ore from BHP’s Yandi Lower Channel Deposit using Rio Tinto’s existing Pilbara infrastructure. The arrangement leverages shared rail and port capacity, requiring minimal incremental capital expenditure while targeting first ore shipments in early 2028. By pooling resources, both companies expect to enhance mine life, optimize rail network utilization by an additional 5 million tonnes annually, and extend processing plant throughput without major expansion. Executives noted this cooperation builds on a similar 2023 agreement and strengthens regional supply resilience.