{"id":83738,"date":"2026-07-15T20:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/83738\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:28:08","slug":"rio-tinto-cuts-copper-unit-costs-nearly-in-half-for-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/83738\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto cuts copper unit costs nearly in half for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rio<\/a> Rio Tinto cuts copper unit costs nearly in half for 2026 Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n

Rio Tinto Ltd (LSE:RIO, ASX:RIO, OTC:RTNTF)<\/a>‘s Pilbara iron ore unit posted its strongest first-half production since 2018, beating consensus estimates alongside stronger shipment volumes, as the miner reiterated full-year guidance across all segments. <\/p>\n

Second-quarter production beat expectations in both Pilbara output and shipment volumes, while the rest of Rio’s major operating assets came in line with consensus. <\/p>\n

Jefferies reiterated a Hold rating on Rio, citing relative valuation and a preference for miners with more direct copper leverage. <\/p>\n

“While mostly an uneventful report from Rio, the quarter-over-quarter\u00a0rebound in volumes at certain assets in Q2 is encouraging,” Jefferies analysts wrote. <\/p>\n

Cash generation in the first half was impacted by roughly $1.6 billion in tax and working capital outflows, the brokerage noted. <\/p>\n

Pilbara shipment volumes rose 18% quarter-on-quarter as the company shipped excess production from the first quarter that had previously been constrained by extreme weather. Rio’s SP10 classification volumes fell to 8% of sales, down from around 12% in recent quarters. <\/p>\n

Rising diesel costs pushed first-half unit costs up about\u00a0$0.8 per tonne year-on-year, though Jefferies noted full-year cash cost guidance in the Pilbara remains unchanged. <\/p>\n

Iron Ore Company of Canada production and shipment volumes declined both sequentially and year-on-year due to lower concentrator feed and an ongoing ore dumper replacement project. Full-year guidance for the operation is subject to the impact of recent forest fires in Canada. <\/p>\n

At Simandou, production increased quarter-on-quarter following a phased restart after a fatality in the first quarter. Ore is expected to be delivered through permanent crushing facilities in the second half. <\/p>\n

Total copper production fell 7% both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, and was largely flat year-on-year for the first half. Refined production at Escondida rose significantly on Full Sal output, while concentrate production declined on anticipated lower ore grades. <\/p>\n

At Kennecott, cathode production declined materially due to mine sequencing adjustments tied to maintenance plans. Oyu Tolgoi production was also lower quarter-on-quarter because of a planned shutdown, though grades came in higher than anticipated and guidance for the asset’s ramp-up is unchanged. <\/p>\n

Jefferies said unit cost guidance in copper was reduced to $0.30-$0.50 per pound from a prior range of $0.65-$0.75 per pound, reflecting higher gold prices and operational improvement initiatives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto cuts copper unit costs nearly in half for 2026 Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock Rio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20718],"tags":[36913,21078,12991,36912,36911],"class_list":["post-83738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rio-tinto","tag-excess-production","tag-rio","tag-rio-tinto","tag-shipment-volumes","tag-unit-costs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116925884099652363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}