Rio Tinto in huge $7bn return to investors as H1 profits soar

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said first half profits rose 12% as it announced a massive $7.2bn (£5.49bn) in shareholder returns from buybacks and asset sales.

Underlying profit for the first six months was $4.42bn as the the interim dividend was lifted by 15% to $1.27 a share.

The returns to shareholders include $3.2bn from operations, and $4bn from asset sales.

Consolidated sales revenue was $19.9bn, up $0.6bn year-on-year, with increased volumes of iron ore, bauxite and copper and higher prices for aluminium and copper, offsetting the impact of lower iron ore prices and the divestment of Coal & Allied.

Rio said it shipped 88.5m tonnes of iron ore in the second quarter of the year, up year on year, due to improved productivity and better weather.

It added that it saw additional cumulative free cash flow of $5bn from the start of 2017 to the end of 2021 from mine-to-market productivity improvements, including $400m in the second half of 2018.

Capital expenditure was expected to remain at around $5.5bn in 2018 and around $6bn in 2019. Capex for 2020 was revised to around $6.5bn from $6bn.