Rio Tinto Sees Copper and Lithium Earnings Surpass Iron Ore for First Time
Rio Tinto's half-year earnings results for 2026 show a significant shift in the company's financial profile, driven by growth in copper, aluminium, and lithium production. The company's underlying EBITDA rose by 28% to $14.8 billion, with net earnings increasing by 47% to $6.7 billion. Free cash flow expanded by 75%, reaching $3.8 billion.
The earnings uplift is attributed to three key factors: elevated commodity prices for copper and aluminium, improved production volumes across key assets, particularly in the copper and lithium segments, and the company's productivity programme delivering material cost benefits at scale.
Copper has emerged as a significant contributor to Rio Tinto's earnings, with its share of group earnings rising to approximately 30%. The company's consolidation strategy for copper expansion has played a central role in this transformation. Oyu Tolgoi, an underground mine in Mongolia, was the standout operational performer within the copper segment.
Rio Tinto's chief executive Simon Trott described the period as representing a step-change in operational performance, attributing the result to an accelerating productivity programme that had already realised $870 million in benefits during the half. The company is on track to reach an annualised run-rate of $1.8 billion by year-end 2026.