Despite its Pilbara operations being impacted by tropical cyclones earlier this year, Rio Tinto has delivered a solid March 2025 quarter defined by the acceleration of key growth projects.
Rio’s port, rail and mine operations at the Dampier and Cape Lambert Ports were affected by Tropical Cyclone Zelia in February and Tropical Cyclone Sean in January, leading to the major announcing that its first quarter shipments were likely to be impacted.
In response to these setbacks, Rio implemented mitigation plans to recover around half of the lost shipments throughout the year thus far.
For the March quarter, Rio delivered 70.7 million tonnes (Mt) of iron ore shipments, a result sitting at the lower end of the company’s guidance of 323–338Mt.
Despite the 17 per cent decrease from the previous quarter, Rio’s 2025 Pilbara iron ore shipment guidance remains unchanged, indicating that its recovery plans are working.
Across the globe, Rio’s Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia produced a record 65,000 tonnes of copper, a result in line with the company’s underground mine ramp-up plan.
Rio’s bauxite operations also hit a first quarter production record and a record production month for March, producing 15Mt.
The result was credited to the Amrun mine in Queensland continuing to operate above its nameplate capacity as implementation of the safe production system drove higher plant availability and utilisation rates.
“We continued to see strong operational improvement with the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine and our bauxite operations delivering record months for production in March,” Rio Tinto chief executive officer Jakob Stausholm said.
“We are making excellent progress with our major projects to deliver profitable organic growth. We achieved first iron ore at Western Range in the Pilbara and the Simandou high-grade iron ore project in Guinea remains on track.”
Rio is also working to establish a world-class lithium business following its $US6.7 billion ($10.5 billion) acquisition of Arcadium Lithium. This includes a $2.5 billion expansion of its Rincon lithium project in Argentina.
“We will continue to drive progress towards our long-term strategy to deliver profitable growth, attractive shareholder returns and build a stronger, more diversified business,” Stausholm said.
