RIO Rio Tinto Limited

   By Rhiannon Hoyle 
 

SYDNEY--Quarterly shipments from Rio Tinto PLC's (RIO.LN) Australian iron-ore mines fell 5% on a year ago because of disruptions from maintenance work and the death of a truck operator at one of the company's pits.

Rio Tinto, the world's No. 2 supplier of the steel ingredient, said 81.9 million metric tons of iron ore was exported from the mines it runs in the remote Pilbara region of northwest Australia during the three months through September. That compared to 85.8 million tons the same period a year earlier, and was also 7% below the quarter immediately prior.

Rio Tinto said it implemented "safety pauses across all operations after the fatality."

Still, the company reiterated a July projection that full-year exports should reach the high end of its 330-million to 340-million target range. During the first nine months of the year, Rio Tinto shipped 250.7 million tons as it expanded operations and deepened a multiyear productivity drive.

The Anglo-Australian miner has spent billions of dollars expanding its vast iron-ore mining network in a bet on continued strong demand for the steelmaking commodity in Asia. To fatten profits from its biggest division, Rio Tinto has also sought to make existing mines more productive, including through the use of autonomous equipment.

The miner is also benefiting from a shift in China's more-profitable steel sector toward bigger, greener mills that run better on high-grade ore, the type sold by Rio Tinto and rival Vale SA (VALE), the world's biggest shipper of the commodity.

Rio Tinto on Tuesday also reported a 1% year-on-year fall in output of bauxite, the raw ingredient in aluminum, despite recent measures implemented to reduce bottlenecks at its Gove operations.

Aluminum production fell by 1% on a year ago, while mined copper output rose 32%.

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 15, 2018 18:11 ET (22:11 GMT)

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