Rio Tinto boosts dividends as earnings double amid iron ore boom

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The firm's redundancies are likely to predominantly cover its South African operations
The firm's redundancies are likely to predominantly cover its South African operations

Mining giant Rio Tinto this morning announced that it would pay out $9.1bn in dividends after earnings more than doubled in the first half.

The FTSE blue chip said that the increase was due to a boom in iron ore prices due to massive demand from China.

Rio Tinto, which is the world’s biggest producer of the metal, said prices had nearly doubled on a year ago.

In total, the firm raked in $12.1bn in the first half, up from $4.7bn last year. As a result, it will pay out a 561 cent per share total dividend.

Chief executive Jakob Stausholm said “Government stimulus in response to ongoing COVID-19 pressures has driven strong demand for our products at a time of constrained supply resulting in a significant spike in most prices.”

This morning’s results come after Rio Tinto last night announced that it would build a new $2.4bn lithium mine. 

The move is the firm’s first at-scale entry into the rapidly growing battery minerals market.