Rio Tinto Posts Record Profit, pays $17B Dividend

Rio Tinto posted on Wednesday its best-ever annual profit and a record full-year dividend of $16.8 billion, boosted by higher iron ore prices and strong demand from top consumer China, Praveen Menon reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The Anglo-Australian miner reported underlying earnings of $21.38 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, up 72% from a year earlier.

The stellar results cap a mixed year for the world's biggest iron ore producer, in which demand for its main product picked up as the global economy slowly recovered from the coronavirus but inflation and Chinese scrutiny of prices created headwinds.

Rio's reputation suffered from a scandal over poor workplace culture, while Serbia shut down a lithium project, a promising growth area. On the plus side, it resolved a long-running dispute over a massive Mongolian copper-gold mining project.

The Anglo-Australian miner reported underlying earnings of $21.38 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, up 72% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected underlying earnings of $21.63 billion, according to Visible Alpha.

"Our balance sheet is the strongest it's been for at least 15 years," Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm told reporters after the results. Rio Tinto declared a final special dividend of 62 cents a share and a final dividend of $4.17, higher than the year-earlier final dividend of $3.09, taking its total 2021 dividend to a record $10.40 a share.

Its shares closed up 1.2% on the Australia Stock Exchange ahead of the results. But share prices were down 0.3% in London by 1042 GMT, underperforming other miners. Rival BHP Group also declared a record dividend payout after reporting an estimate-beating first-half profit last week.

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