Tag: RIO

Mining problems at its huge operation in the Pilbara means Rio Tinto will not get the full benefit of the surge in iron ore prices which rose to yet another five year high Wednesday of $US114.08 a tonne.

Rio Tinto’s seemingly huge Winu copper, gold silver strike in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia is looking more interesting after the miner released more drill results to follow up on the first release of data in March.

When Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) finally broke cover in February on its Winu copper-gold discovery in WA’s Paterson province, it made clear that drilling had yet to close off the mineralisation beneath the region’s sand dunes.

Rio Tinto is facing the loss of up to 14 million tonnes of iron ore exports – worth around $US1.2 billion or $A1.7 billion in lost revenue – in 2019 from the combination of a fire at its Cape Lambert export port in January that was compounded by the impact of Cyclone Veronica late last month.

Rio Tinto has handed shareholders a second round of goodies to go with the massive interim payout and capital return.

Rio Tinto last night finally admitted that it has been working on a massive copper-gold-silver find in the Patterson area of the East Pilbara in Western Australia. There have been rumours of Rio’s discovery now for much of the past year.

Rio Tinto is confident the buoyancy of the Chinese iron ore market won’t end soon as it forecasts a small rise in its 2019 export forecast in the wake of a small rise in its 2018 performance.

The mini-boom in the iron ore industry has topped the $9 billion mark after Rio Tinto approved a $US2.6 billion (A$3.5 billion) investment in its new Koodaideri iron ore mine.

Has a massive new gold/copper discovery been made in the Eastern Pilbara region of WA, along with suggestions of a separate copper find by one of the world’s biggest miners?

So much for Rio Tinto’s proposed $US1.3 billion sale of its stake in the huge Simandou iron ore prospect in the African country of Guinea – it has lapsed because Rio and the Chinese buyer couldn’t agree on terms.

Rio Tinto has maintained its target to ship at the upper end of the guidance range of 330 to 340 million tonnes for the 2018 year to December 31, despite reporting a 5% slide in exports for the three months to September.

Rio Tinto says it will return $US3.2 billion ($4.4 billion) to shareholders from the cash raised in the recent sale of coal assets via a share buyback.