Safety

Safety remains our highest priority. We are sharpening our focus on safety at every level, simplifying and strengthening our standards to concentrate on what matters most, reinforced by discipline in compliance. Central to this is a renewed focus on critical risk management - ensuring that the controls designed to prevent fatalities are clearly understood, consistently applied and personally owned by leaders.

Following the tragic fatalities at Simandou and Kennecott during the quarter, both operations were immediately shut down and progressively restarted once conditions allowed. At the Kennecott underground project, a staged restart commenced from 16 April.

2.  Guidance

Production/sales guidance

•     2026 production/sales guidance is unchanged.¹

Unit cost guidance

•     2026 unit cost guidance is unchanged.

3. Group update 

Expenditure on exploration and evaluation

•     Pre-tax and pre-divestment expenditure on exploration and evaluation charged to the Income Statement in Q1 2026 was $180 million which included expenditure associated with the land exchange at Resolution, compared with $141 million in 2025. Approximately 53% of the spend was by Copper product group, 29% by central exploration, 17% by Iron Ore product group and 1% by Aluminium & Lithium product group.

Productivity benefits

•     By March, as planned, we had implemented the initiatives that are contributing $650m of annualised benefits. These include operational improvements, right sizing central functions and a streamlining of organisational expenses and non-operational initiatives. We are now pursuing further significant improvements focused on throughput, operating costs and central costs to deliver additional benefits over the coming years, beyond the $650m already in place.

Middle East conflict

•     To date: on the supply-side, the direct impacts on our operations have been limited, while our commodity prices have responded favourably. Our scale, global reach and sophisticated supply chains provide a resilient foundation and have enabled the business to operate normally.

◦     Global businesses: Aluminium - the strength of our vertically integrated value chain, with our business advantageously positioned across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, has ensured security of supply to our customers. Iron Ore, Copper, Lithium - operations remained largely unaffected, with no material disruption to supply chains.

◦     Diesel: we consume ~1.6bn litres of diesel annually, around two‑thirds in the Pilbara. Despite higher diesel prices steepening the cost curve, our cost position is resilient, underpinned by scale and global supply‑chain leverage.

◦     Other business inputs (such as jet fuel, caustic soda and others): prices rose, however, there was no disruption to our business. On sulphuric acid, we are a net long producer globally via our Kennecott smelter.

•     We continue to monitor the evolving global impact closely and have contingency plans in place. However, we have relatively limited visibility of how the ongoing conflict will affect supply chains in H2.

¹ Guidance remains subject to weather impacts. ² Pilbara iron ore: subject to the impact of higher diesel prices and foreign exchange. From May, each $10/bbl movement in oil prices (including refining margins) is estimated to impact Pilbara unit costs by approximately $0.15/t, subject to exchange rates and broader inflationary pressures arising from higher diesel prices.

5. Iron Ore

Pilbara operations

Production figures are sometimes more precise than the rounded numbers shown, hence small rounding differences may appear.

¹ SP10 includes other lower grade products.

² Sales includes material shipped from the Pilbara to our portside trading facility in China which may not be sold onwards by the group in the same period.

³ While Rio Tinto has a 53% net beneficial interest in Robe River Iron Associates, it recognises 65% of the assets, liabilities, sales revenues and expenses in its accounts (as 30% is held through a 60% owned subsidiary and 35% is held through a 100% owned subsidiary). The consolidated basis sales reported here include Robe River Iron Associates on a 65% basis to enable comparison with revenue reported in the financial statements. 

•     Q1 production: Second highest Q1 since 2018 and up 13% YoY, driven by continued investment in mine health and productivity, and fewer weather impacts.

•     Q1 sales: Up 2% YoY, driven by strong mine performance. Tropical Cyclones Mitchell (February) and Narelle (March) impacted shipments by approximately 8 Mt, with effects extending into early Q2. Around half of weather losses are expected to be recovered. SP10 represented 12% of total sales, in line with Q4 2025.

•     Q1 sales: 8% of sales priced by reference to the prior quarter's average index lagged by one month, remainder sold either on current quarter average, month average or on the spot market.

◦     25% of sales were made on a free on board (FOB) basis, with remainder sold including freight.

•     Q1 portside sales in China: 2.6 Mt (8.6 Mt in Q1 2025)

◦     100% of our portside sales were either screened or blended in Chinese ports.

◦     End-March inventory levels at portside were 6.6 Mt, including 3.2 Mt of Pilbara product.

Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC)

¹ Sales includes material shipped from IOC to our portside trading facility in China which may not be sold onwards by the group in the same period.

•     Q1 production: Down 13% YoY, due to adverse weather and ongoing challenges with mine and asset health. In particular, mine equipment reliability, while improving, is a critical focus. 

•     Q1 sales: Down 3% YoY due to lower concentrator feed.

Simandou

¹ Simandou production represents crushed ore at the SimFer mine gate before train loading.

² Simandou sales will represent ore which has been through tertiary crushing in China and collected by the customer. There is a ~2-3 month lag between mine gate production and sales; this accounts for time for railing of ore to the port in Guinea, shipping to China and tertiary crushing in China, and collection of final product by the customer.

³ 2.3 Mt (100% SimFer) of crushed iron ore (1 Mt, Rio Tinto share) was produced in 2025 and was recorded for the first time in Q4 2025.

•     Q1 production: Following the tragic fatality, mine operations were progressively resumed over one month. Ore continues to be crushed utilising temporary crushing facilities, with first ore expected through permanent crushing facilities in H2 2026. As at the end of Q1, 2.1Mt (100%) of crushed ore has been stockpiled at the mine gate ready for loading.

•     Q1 sales: 0.6 Mt (100%) was shipped to China during the quarter. First sales have been realised in April.