Producer
Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto (LSE/ASX: RIO; HQ London; ~$54B revenue) is the world's second-largest mining company and operator of Oyu Tolgoi, the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold deposit (Gobi Desert, Mongolia, ~66% ownership via Turquoise Hill Resources). Oyu Tolgoi's water supply — sourced from the Undai River in a semi-arid steppe ecosystem — has been the central community conflict issue between Rio Tinto and Mongolian herder communities since construction began. The Undai River watershed supports traditional Mongolian nomadic pastoralism; mine water use was seen as an existential threat to herder livelihoods. Rio Tinto reached a water-sharing agreement with the Mongolian government in 2015 but community tensions persist. Rio Tinto's Pilbara iron ore operations (Western Australia) are relatively dry-mined but face growing pressure on groundwater extraction from Aboriginal community rights claims.
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What they make
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2 facilities
Oyu Tolgoi Mine — Undai River Water Intake (Ömnögovi Province, Mongolia) →
MNÖmnögovi (South Gobi) · mine
Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine (Ömnögovi Province, Gobi Desert, Mongolia; 66% Rio Tinto / Turquoise Hill, 34% Mongolian government) relies on the Undai River as its primary freshwater source for process water. The Undai River is a ephemeral (seasonal) river in an arid steppe ecosystem supporting Mongolian nomadic herder communities. Mine water withdrawal agreements negotiated 2011-2015 between Oyu Tolgoi LLC and the Mongolian government set extraction limits; community conflicts over water access have been an ongoing source of social license risk. The underground mine expansion (Phase 2, 2020-2024, ~$7B) significantly increased water demand. Water availability in the Gobi Desert is a physical constraint on mine production rates — the Undai River is a single-source dependency for a $10B+ mine. Source: https://www.riotinto.com/en/operations/mongolia/oyu-tolgoi
Pilbara Iron Ore Region Water Network (BHP/Rio Tinto/Fortescue, Western Australia) →
AUWestern Australia · other
The Pilbara region of Western Australia hosts the world's largest iron ore mining district (BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue — collectively ~900 million tonnes/year, ~40% of global seaborne iron ore). Unlike copper or gold mining, iron ore mining is relatively 'dry' — beneficiation requires minimal water because high-grade direct shipping ore (DSO) does not require flotation or hydrometallurgical processing. However, the Pilbara's slurry pipelines, dust suppression, and camp infrastructure still require significant water. More critically, deeper mining requiring ore processing (as surface-rich DSO grades decline) will require water that is currently scarce and contested by Aboriginal communities with native title rights over Pilbara water. Rio Tinto's destruction of Juukan Gorge caves (2020) was a flashpoint that elevated scrutiny of all Rio Tinto resource access claims in Pilbara indigenous heritage areas — including water. Source: https://www.riotinto.com/operations/australia/pilbara
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Iron Ore (Pilbara, Australia)
58%Aluminum (Rio Tinto Alcan)
18%Copper (Oyu Tolgoi, Kennecott)
14%Boron & Minerals (US Borax)
5%Titanium & Other Minerals
5%
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Did you know2024
Rio Tinto is tracked primarily as the world's largest iron ore producer (steel supply chain), but it also owns US Borax in Boron, California — the world's largest borate mining operation and the dominant Western supplier of boron. Boron is a critical component in neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets, which are the primary type of magnet used in EV drive motors and direct-drive wind turbines. The iron ore company that supplies blast furnace steel also supplies the boron that goes into the permanent magnets that make combustion engines unnecessary. Rio Tinto is simultaneously supplying the raw material for traditional steelmaking AND for the EV magnets that are displacing combustion engines — an internal hedge that makes Rio Tinto profitable regardless of the energy transition's speed.
Rio Tinto ↗Origin2023
Rio Tinto was founded in 1873 when a syndicate of British and German investors acquired the ancient copper mines at Rio Tinto (Red River) in Huelva, Spain — mines that had been worked since Phoenician times (~3,000 years of mining history) and continued by the Romans. The company grew through the British imperial mining era, eventually expanding from Spanish copper to Australian iron ore (Pilbara, 1960s) and Canadian aluminum (Alcan merger, 2007). The 2020 Juukan Gorge incident — when Rio Tinto blasted a 46,000-year-old Pilbara Aboriginal sacred site for iron ore access despite documented archaeological significance — led to the resignation of the CEO and two senior executives and became a defining global moment in Indigenous rights and corporate ESG governance.
Rio Tinto ↗