British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto posted its highest half-year underlying earnings in four years on Wednesday (July 28) as performances from its copper and aluminium units outclassed profits from iron ore for the first time.
The world’s largest iron ore miner is now deriving around 56% of its profit from copper and aluminium combined, turbocharged by trends like electrification and data centre expansion as CEO Simon Trott eyes making Rio Tinto’s operations simpler and sharper.
Rio Tinto has now joined BHP in reaping gains from stronger copper demand, with the peer company reporting in February it gained more profit in the half-year ending in December 2026 from the red metal than from iron ore.
For the six months ended June 30, Rio’s underlying earnings stood at USD 6.85 billion, up 43% from USD 4.81 billion seen a year earlier and broadly in line with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of USD 6.80 billion.
The business’ underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) surged 84% to USD 5.7 billion for its copper division, while iron ore generated underlying EBITDA of USD 6.8 billion, down 1% from a year earlier.
The miner also declared its highest interim dividend in four years at USD 2.11 per share, compared with USD 1.48 per share registered in 2025. Its 2026 production and sales forecasts have remained unchanged.
While the result met analysts’ expectations and delivered on productivity promises, the mining giant still fell short of any major announcements related to optimising its portfolio of assets and infrastructure.
In December 2025, Rio said it could unlock USD 5 billion to USD 10 billion in cash through portfolio management and infrastructure initiatives. The venture now expects to achieve half of that by the 2026-end.
“Part of that will be through the agreed sale of its share of a seawater desalination plant in Dampier in Western Australia,” Trott told a media call on Wednesday, without disclosing the sale amount.
As per Trott, the miner had delivered a “step-change in performance” in the first half, helped by higher commodity prices, rising copper output and productivity gains across the business.
“We are seeing shifts really across all of our commodities in terms of underlying demand,” he said, flagging growing data centre and grid storage battery demand for copper and lithium.
While Rio’s productivity growth delivered USD 870 million in benefits in the first half despite headwinds from high diesel prices and the strengthening Australian dollar, the business has remained on track to generate annualised gains of USD 1.8 billion by 2026-end.
Meanwhile, major Australian miners and industry lobbyists have asked Canberra for help in pushing back against China’s efforts to extract better terms for their iron ore, including raising the prospect of a single selling desk for Australia’s most valuable commodity export.
Asked about whether Rio would support such an effort, Trott said that the mining giant’s focus would be “solely” on its own business and “capturing synergies with adjacent producers in ways we probably haven’t done before”.
The mining giant also flagged challenges to its goal to cut emissions by 50% from 2018 levels by 2030, warning that the roadmap’s execution depended on the timely delivery of third-party renewable energy projects and commercial agreements that could not be guaranteed.