Rio Tinto expands metals trading to third-party producers

Rio Tinto plans to expand its commercial operations to trade metals from other producers and use derivatives to hedge risks, according to people familiar with the strategy. The move by CEO Simon Trott and Chairman Dominic Barton aims to extract more value from the company's assets and make the world's second-largest miner more agile.

The miner, whose commercial arm is led by Chief Commercial Officer Bold Baatar, is shifting away from its traditional model of selling only its own output. Key focus areas include the alumina market, where Rio Tinto faces regional surpluses and deficits, and the North American copper market, where it has spare smelting capacity at its Kennecott operations. The company could also add copper cathodes and related products like sulfuric acid.

Rio Tinto confirmed that while marketing its own production remains its foundation, it continues to expand its capacity to buy and sell on behalf of third parties to maximize infrastructure use and optimize production flows. The commercial team currently has around 20 traders and plans to hire more, though the unit's financial contribution will only be tracked internally.

The push follows two rounds of abandoned talks to acquire Glencore over the past two years, where Glencore's trading networks and copper portfolio were major attractions. In addition, Rio Tinto is negotiating a freight and logistics joint venture with energy trader Vitol Group.