Rio Tinto PLC (LSE:RIO) reported record full-year results and its highest ever dividend, including a special payout, as the world’s largest mining companies continued to reap the benefits of strong commodity prices.
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Underlying earnings jumped 72% year-on-year to U$21.4bn in 2021 as higher commodity prices outweighed challenging operating conditions.
The miner will pay a total dividend of US$10.4 per share, including a US$2.47 per share special dividend, taking its total dividend payout for the year to US$16.8bn.
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"Our people have continued to safely run our world-class assets and are working hard to improve our operational performance, despite challenging operating conditions from prolonged COVID-19 disruptions,” said chief executive Jakob Stausholm.
“The recovery of the global economy, driven by industrial production, resulted in significant price strength for our major commodities, which we were able to capture, achieving record financial results.”
In a flurry of announcements, Rio also released its climate change report: 'Our approach to climate change 2021'. It set a new target to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, more than tripling its previous goal, and has brought forward its 15% reduction in emissions to 2025 from 2030.
Rio Tinto also reported a mixed bag of updated reserve and resource estimates for three of its projects.
At the Winu project in Western Australia it reported a 21% increase in tonnage, a 16% lift in copper grade, a 12% rise in gold grade, a 40% jump in contained copper metal and a 35% growth in contained gold metal.
However, it reduced bauxite ore reserve estimates at Rio Tinto Aluminium (RTA) Pacific Operations at Weipa, following a review of price assumptions and updated orebody knowledge, and cut reserve estimates at its Jadar project in Serbia after the government revoked permits.