Rio Tinto : Half Year Results 2021 - Combined Slides and Scripts

2021

Half Year Results

28 July 2021

Karratha's Red Earth Arts Precinct, the Pilbara. Rio Tinto is a funding partner

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Cautionary and supporting statements

This presentation has been prepared by Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited (together with their subsidiaries, "Rio Tinto"). By accessing/attending this presentation you acknowledge that you have read and understood the following statement.

Forward-looking statements

This presentation includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this report, including, without limitation, those regarding Rio Tinto's financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to Rio Tinto's products, production forecasts and reserve and resource positions), are forward-looking statements. The words "intend", "aim", "project", "anticipate", "estimate", "plan", "believes", "expects", "may", "should", "will", "target", "set to" or similar expressions, commonly identify such forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Rio Tinto, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Rio Tinto's present and future business strategies and the environment in which Rio Tinto will operate in the future. Among the important factors that could cause Rio Tinto's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: an inability to live up to Rio Tinto's values and any resultant damage to its reputation; the impacts of geopolitics on trade and investment; the impacts of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon future; an inability to successfully execute and/or realise value from acquisitions and divestments; the level of new ore resources, including the results of exploration programmes and/or acquisitions; disruption to strategic partnerships that play a material role in delivering growth, production, cash or market positioning; damage to Rio Tinto's relationships with communities and governments; an inability to attract and retain requisite skilled people; declines in commodity prices and adverse exchange rate movements; an inability to raise sufficient funds for capital investment; inadequate estimates of ore resources and reserves; delays or overruns of large and complex projects; changes in tax regulation; safety incidents or major hazard events; cyber breaches; physical impacts from climate change; the impacts of water scarcity; natural disasters; an inability to successfully manage the closure, reclamation and rehabilitation of sites; the impacts of civil unrest; the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic; breaches of Rio Tinto's policies, standard and procedures, laws or regulations; trade tensions between the world's major economies; increasing societal and investor expectations, in particular with regard to environmental, social and governance considerations; the impacts of technological advancements; and such other risks identified in Rio Tinto's most recent Annual Report and accounts in Australia and the United Kingdom and the most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") or Form 6-Ks furnished to, or filed with, the SEC. Forward-looking statements should, therefore, be construed in light of such risk factors and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report. Rio Tinto expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking (except as required by applicable law, the UK Listing Rules, the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Listing Rules of the Australian Securities Exchange) to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Rio Tinto's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Nothing in this presentation should be interpreted to mean that future earnings per share of Rio Tinto plc or Rio Tinto Limited will necessarily match or exceed its historical published earnings per share.

Disclaimer

Neither this presentation, nor the question and answer session, nor any part thereof, may be recorded, transcribed, distributed, published or reproduced in any form, except as permitted by Rio Tinto. By accessing/ attending this presentation, you agree with the foregoing and, upon request, you will promptly return any records or transcripts at the presentation without retaining any copies.

This presentation contains a number of non-IFRS financial measures. Rio Tinto management considers these to be key financial performance indicators of the business and they are defined and/or reconciled in Rio Tinto's annual results press release, Annual Report and accounts in Australia and the United Kingdom and/or the most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC or Form 6-Ks furnished to, or filed with, the SEC.

Reference to consensus figures are not based on Rio Tinto's own opinions, estimates or forecasts and are compiled and published without comment from, or endorsement or verification by, Rio Tinto. The consensus figures do not necessarily reflect guidance provided from time to time by Rio Tinto where given in relation to equivalent metrics, which to the extent available can be found on the Rio Tinto website.

By referencing consensus figures, Rio Tinto does not imply that it endorses, confirms or expresses a view on the consensus figures. The consensus figures are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to, nor do they, constitute investment advice or any solicitation to buy, hold or sell securities or other financial instruments. No warranty or representation, either express or implied, is made by Rio Tinto or its affiliates, or their respective directors, officers and employees, in relation to the accuracy, completeness or achievability of the consensus figures and, to the fullest extent permitted by law, no responsibility or liability is accepted by any of those persons in respect of those matters. Rio Tinto assumes no obligation to update, revise or supplement the consensus figures to reflect circumstances existing after the date hereof.

©2021, Rio Tinto, All Rights Reserved

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Jakob Stausholm

Chief Executive

Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC)

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Four areas of focus for an even stronger Rio Tinto

Best	Impeccable ESG	Excel in		H1 2021 Financials
operator	credentials	development		$21.0bn
Room to improve	Partnerships	Jadar
	EBITDA
ELYSISTM, InoBat, ARENA,	New commodity entry;
Rio Tinto Safe
Charge On Challenge	large, low cost
Production System		50%
COVID-19 resilience	Heritage	Projects
Significant impact on	Building capability and	Agile and adapting		Underlying ROCE
cultural competence	during COVID-19
operations and functions
			FCF of $10.2bn
	Social Licence
Significant engagement (>130 YTD for Chief Executive)1		Net cash of $3.1bn
	$7.3bn2
Rebuilding relationships in the Pilbara and beyond
				Taxes & government royalties
				$9.1bn
				Dividends declared to shareholders
1Excluding engagements with financial markets | 2 Taxes of $5.6bn and government royalties of $1.7bn in respect of the first half 2021
©2021, Rio Tinto, All Rights Reserved				4 4

Thank you Menno. Good morning and good evening.

When I presented our results in February, I set out a pathway to make Rio Tinto stronger, building on what are clearly fundamentally robust foundations.

To me, our performance this half reaffirmed the underlying qualities of Rio Tinto. It also highlighted the need to strengthen the business for the long term.

We again achieved a strong safety performance, despite challenging conditions. It remains our first priority and we will never be complacent.

Government stimulus to aid economic recovery in response to ongoing COVID pressures led to robust demand for our products, at a time of ongoing supply constraints. As a result, we saw significant and prolonged price spikes during the first half, leading to strong free cash flow.

As an industry, we benefited from host governments recognising mining as an essential business. It allowed us to focus on safely operating our world-class assets and delivering products to our customers, despite necessary COVID restrictions. This meant people remained employed, suppliers had our business, and taxes and royalties continued to be paid.

And our people once again demonstrated their agility, resilience, and commitment to Rio. This is particularly true in terms of dealing with COVID. In 2020, we scrambled to keep operations running. In 2021, COVID has been even more challenging, especially in terms of

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our ability to get people to our assets. This is particularly true in Mongolia and Western Australia.

However our fundamentally strong foundations enabled us to achieve EBITDA of $21 billion and ROCE of 50%.

We recorded $7.3 billion of taxes and royalties, have invested $3.3 billion in growth and sustaining capex, leading to free cash flow in excess of $10 billion. As a result, we will return $9.1 billion to our shareholders. This is in line with our dividend policy and reflects a strong pricing environment. However, we remain cautious on the outlook and must ensure we remain resilient in all scenarios.

In June, I was very pleased to be able to travel to our Jadar project in Serbia, meet with some key stakeholders, and visit the team on the ground. This week, I'm proud that we have committed funding for Jadar. This is an important step forward, moving Rio Tinto into battery materials at scale. It also demonstrates our commitment to investing capital in a disciplined manner to shape our portfolio for the future.

Lithium is a key commodity for the electrification of transport, large scale batteries and energy storage. We have a critical role in supplying the metals and minerals required for the global energy transition.

Despite our outstanding financial performance, the past six months has confirmed there are clearly areas where we need to improve.

Firstly, to be the 'best operator'. In the first half we experienced too much operational instability. We are addressing this in a systemic manner and will sharpen the consistency of our performance.

Secondly, the 100 plus stakeholder meetings I had in the first half have strengthened my conviction that the foundation for our business is achieving impeccable ESG credentials. In order to sustainably deliver shareholder returns we must ensure all our stakeholders benefit from the success of Rio Tinto.

Thirdly, we must excel in development - both organically and inorganically. We will only pursue opportunities that create value. Jadar is a perfect example.

Finally, we must become a more outward-looking company, more in-tune with society. This is our social licence to operate. It is judged by others and essential for long-term success.

We are making tangible and lasting changes to the way we engage, interact and operate. This goes beyond my leadership team and is being embedded across the entire company, to ensure we're making sustainable changes.

Let me now hand over to Peter to take you through the financials.

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