Rio Tinto posts record profit on strong iron ore prices and demand

Rio Tinto reported on Wednesday its best-yet annual profit and a record full-year dividend of $16.8bn, boosted by higher iron ore prices and strong demand from top consumer China.

The stellar results cap a mixed year for the world’s biggest iron ore producer, during which demand for its mainstay product — iron ore — picked up with the global economy slowly recovering from the coronavirus pandemic but inflation and Chinese scrutiny on prices created headwinds.

Rio’s reputation suffered as it was caught in a scandal about poor workplace culture and, more recently, Serbia shut down a lithium project, a promising growth area. On the plus side, it resolved a long-running dispute over a massive Mongolian copper-gold mining project.

The Anglo-Australian miner posted underlying earnings of $21.38bn for the year ended December 31, up 72% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected underlying earnings of $21.63bn, according to Visible Alpha.