Lithium bet by former Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm hits big by powering share price to a record

Shares in Rio Tinto hit an all-time high on Monday as a big bet on lithium made by Simon Trott’s predecessor looks to be paying off.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant cracked the $150 barrier on the ASX for the first time, before finishing the day at $149.59 for a day gain of $1.90.

Rio’s stock is up 30 per cent over the past year — buoyed by a recent resurgence in lithium demand, plus iron ore prices defying expectations to remain above $US100 per tonne.

Former chief executive Jakob Stausholm completed an $11 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium in March last year when the price of spodumene concentrate, a lithium product, was in the doldrums at less than $US850/t.

Mr Stausholm also earmarked billions of dollars to build out the miner’s broader lithium portfolio.

The counter-cyclical play got off to a rocky start when lithium prices tumbled even further — spodumene concentrate fell below $US600/t in June — but it rebounded sharply in the final quarter of 2025 to currently sit at above $US1550/t.

The late-year resurgence was fuelled by lithium mine closures in China and fast-growing demand for the battery commodity as an input for energy storage systems, such as the Tesla Powerwall.

Deutsche Bank analyst Liam Fitzpatrick in July said Rio’s board had lost patience with Mr Stausholm’s punt and picked Mr Trott as his successor during that month with a view on trimming down the company’s bulging lithium portfolio.

Mr Trott in October said that Rio would only progress “the very best” of its numerous lithium options.

“One of the really good things about having options, and we’ve got lots of options in the lithium space, is that the bar is really high, and so we can look at those projects and progress the very best of them,” he said at the time.

He scrapped the controversial Jadar lithium project in Serbia and essentially snuffed out hopes it could restart the mothballed Mt Cattlin mine in WA.

Rio’s lithium portfolio is now focused on brine operations in South America and battery-grade processing plants in Asia and North America.

Neither of Rio’s main Pilbara iron ore rivals — BHP and Fortescue — have exposure to lithium.

BHP is currently trading about 8 per cent lower than its all-time high achieved in late 2023 and Fortescue is 25 per cent lower than its early 2024 record.

Shares in ASX-listed lithium producers have surged in recent months. PLS and Liontown have more than doubled in value since September.

Despite Rio’s share price record, a wave of white-collar job cuts is looming for the dual-listed company.

Mr Trott in the latter half of last year said Rio needs to “have a hard look” at reducing the number of “layers” it has and is progressing plans to improve cost efficiency.