The Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) share price is under the microscope after the ASX mining share announced its FY26 half-year result.
Rio Tinto is a major producer of iron ore and copper. It’s also involved in aluminium, lithium, bauxite and more.
FY26 half-year result.
Here are some of the highlights from the six months to 30 June 2026:
- Revenue grew 15% to $31 billion
- Underlying EBITDA (EBITDA explained) rose 28% to $14.8 billion
- Underlying earnings increased 43% to $6.8 billion
- Net profit grew 47% to $6.7 billion
- Operating cashflow increased 32% to $9.2 billion
- Free cashflow grew 755 to $3.8 billion
- Interim dividend hiked by 43% to US$2.11
- Net debt reduced 2% to $14 billion
What happened to drive this result?
Rio Tinto explained that its underlying EBITDA benefited from a $3.6 billion increase due to stronger commodity prices, while it also experienced a $1.5 billion increase from higher volumes and operating cash unit cost improvements.
Overall, copper made $5.7 billion of the segment EBITDA (up 84% year on year), iron ore made $6.8 billion (down 1% year on year) and aluminium & lithium EBITDA jumped 38% to $3.3 billion.
Copper was a key driver of the business, both in terms of the commodity price and volume. The benchmark copper price increased 39%, the gold price rose 53% and the aluminium price increased 33%, while the iron ore price was resilient and rose 2%.
The bauxite price decline was the main negative.
There was a 3% increase in copper production, thanks to a combination of targeted actions taken as part of its productivity program, as well as delivery of growth projects.
The company noted accelerating underground development at Oyu Tolgoi (a copper project in Mongolia) through increasing drawbell development rates by 15% and increasing molybdenum volumes at Kennecott.
Rio Tinto also highlighted higher copper and gold volumes delivered by the ongoing ramp-up of Oyu Tolgoi, as well as growth at the Argentinian lithium operations.
Simandou
Rio Tinto partly owns the new, huge iron ore project in Africa called Simandou.
Simandou achieved its first high-grade iron ore sales in April. The SimFer mine construction and port infrastructure are both now more than three quarters complete, with full rail commissioning achieved in the first quarter.
Outlook for the Rio Tinto share price
The business has had a strong start to 2026.
It expects to achieve copper production of between 800kt to 870kt, with first half production being 442kt. Total iron ore sales are expected to be between 343kt to 366kt, with the first half showing 164.5kt of total iron ore sales.
Rio Tinto is performing for shareholders and the dividend growth is excellent.
I’m not sure it’s a wonderful buy today after rising more than 30% in the past year – the market knows its profitability has increased. But, it’s one to keep an eye on – I like that it’s expanding in copper and lithium, diversifying away from Australian iron ore. I like investing when investors are fearful about commodity prices.
For now, there are other ASX dividend shares that could be better buys.
