Rio Tinto showers shareholders in a copper dividend windfall after massive surge in first-half net profit

Rio Tinto will share the windfall of its copper bonanza with shareholders after reporting a massive surge in first-half net profit that was underpinned by production growth of the red metal.

The mining giant on Wednesday declared a dividend of $US2.11 a share as net profit for the six months to the end of June rocketed 47 per cent to $US6.67 billion — up from $US4.53b a year earlier — as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation leapt 28 per cent to $14.8b.

Chief executive Simon Trott described the first half of the year as “a step-change” in performance.

“Our continued investment in growth drove a 3 per cent increase in copper equivalent production and further strengthened our portfolio diversification, with copper, aluminium and lithium contributing more than 50 per cent of underlying EBITDA,” Mr Trott said.

“Our strong performance is underpinned by accelerating productivity across the business.

“We have already banked $870 million of productivity benefits and are on track to reach an annualised run-rate of $1.8 billion by year-end, with significantly more to come as our multi-year program continues to scale.”

Rio delivered 442,000t of copper in the first half as it races to keep pace with demand fuelled by the rapid adoption of data centres, bringing in $US5.7b for the six-month period — up 84 per cent from a year earlier.

It is targeting full-year production of between 800,000t and 870,000t

Iron ore still remains the group’s biggest earning, but now only just. It brought in $US6.8b — down one per cent.

Sales from its massive Pilbara network hit 157.7 million tonnes while its Simandou mine in Guinea contributed 400,000t as the project continues to ramp up.

Its Pilbara mines were affected by tropical cyclones earlier this year and will have to play catch up as Rio targets full-year guidance of between 323mt and 338mt.

More to come.