Rio Tinto to tackle customers emissions, issues biggest dividend ever

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) has rewarded investors with the biggest dividend in its 148-year history and laid out plans to tackle the vast carbon footprint of its global customers, in an effort to leave behind what its new chief executive called a “year of extremes.”

The world’s second largest miner is handing back $9 billion of cash to shareholders, including a record final dividend of $6.5 billion. The splurge comes as iron ore, Rio’s most important commodity, climbed almost 85% in 2020 to a nine-year high of more than $175 a tonne.

In his first address since taking up the top post in January, Jakob Stausholm said he would strive to restore trust in the company, shattered after it destroyed a sacred Aboriginal site to make way for an iron ore mine expansion in Western Australia.