Rio Tinto reported a 7% year-on-year increase in iron ore shipments in the third quarter, driven by a record 32.5 million tonnes of output from its new Gudai-Darri mine. Overall Pilbara production rose to 86.2 million tonnes, reflecting a 3% improvement in system availability and reduced maintenance downtime at key processing plants. Unit costs in the Pilbara region fell by 4% compared with the prior quarter, as throughput improvements at Cape Lambert and Dampier port facilities helped offset softer benchmark pricing in seaborne markets.

Rio Tinto has entered a two-year agreement with Amazon Web Services to scale up its Nuton bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp copper mine in Arizona. AWS will be the first commercial customer for Nuton, securing up to 30,000 tonnes of refined copper over four years for use in U.S. data-center components. The partnership leverages cloud-based analytics to optimize heap-leach design, boosting recovery rates by an estimated 12% and cutting water use by 15%. The on-site process produces 99.99% pure copper without traditional smelting, reducing the mine’s carbon footprint by approximately 40% compared with conventional operations.

Under two non-binding memoranda of understanding, Rio Tinto and BHP will jointly develop the Wunbye deposit and deliver ore from BHP’s Yandi Lower Channel deposit into Rio Tinto’s existing Pilbara rail and port network. The companies anticipate extracting up to 200 million tonnes of additional iron ore with minimal incremental capital investment, targeting first shipments in 2028. The agreement builds on a 2023 framework and is expected to extend Pilbara mine life by at least five years while capturing over A$1 billion in operating synergies through shared infrastructure.