The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is down after releasing a quarterly report that showed growth.
Rio Tinto is best-known for being one of the world’s biggest iron ore miners. But, it also produces other commodities, such as copper.
Solid finish to 2022 for Rio Tinto
The ASX mining share said that its Pilbara iron ore production was 89.5 mt. This was a 6% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and it was also 6% more than the third quarter of 2022.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, bauxite production was up 1%, aluminium production was up 3%, mined copper production was down 1%, titanium dioxide slag production was up 42% and Iron Ore Canada pellets and concentrate was up 1% to 2.5mt.
For the whole year of 2022, the Pilbara operations saw 1% production growth to 324.1 mt. Rio Tinto said that performance improvements continued across the system and it achieved a record second half performance across the mine and rail system. The miner expects that Gudai-Darri will reach its capacity on a sustained basis during 2023.
Acquisition
Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said:
The acquisition of Turquoise Hill Resources strengthens our copper portfolio and demonstrates our ability to allocate capital with discipline to grow in materials the world needs for the energy transition and delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Copper guidance has been increased accordingly. We continue to invest in future growth, progressing the Rincon lithium project in Argentina and are working with our partners to progress the Simandou project in Guinea.
2023 guidance
In 2023, Rio Tinto is guiding Pilbara iron ore shipments of 320 mt to 335 mt, potentially up from 322 mt of shipments.
Bauxite production guidance is 54 mt to 57 mt.
Alumina guidance is 7.7 mt to 8 mt.
Aluminium guidance is 3.1 mt to 3.3 mt.
Mined copper guidance is 650 kt to 710 kt.
Final thoughts on the Rio Tinto share price
Despite today’s decline, the Rio Tinto share price has risen by 5% over the last month.
Delivering a record is impressive, but I don’t think it makes sense to invest at today’s valuation. While it may make good dividend income, I think it makes more sense to wait for a lower price. We don’t have to invest right now, we can wait. But, I do think it has a good strategy.
For now, there are other ASX dividend shares that could be better value.
