Rio Tinto to Pay $7.7 Billion Dividend as Profit Hits Record
- Miner’s underlying earnings rose 72% in 2021 on prior year
- Rio Tinto joins rivals in delivering big profits and returns
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Rio Tinto Group cemented itself as one of the big winners in the global economic rebound from the pandemic by delivering its highest-ever profits and announcing another massive dividend.
All Rio’s commodities fired in 2021 as pent-up industrial demand and supply-chain snares created a bumper year across the natural-resources industry. Iron ore, by far the company’s most important commodity, hit record prices last year, as did copper. Even aluminum, a long-time headache for Rio since its disastrous purchase of Alcan Inc. in 2007, is on the cusp of hitting an all-time high.