Jan 21 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto beat expectations for quarterly iron ore and copper production on Wednesday and looked set to retain its crown as world's top producer of the key steel-making ingredient.
The Anglo-Australian miner shipped 91.3 million tonnes (Mt) of the steel-making commodity from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended December 31, compared with 85.7 Mt shipped last year and exceeding Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 88.2 Mt.
Rio shipped 326.2 Mt of iron ore from its Pilbara
operations in 2025, landing at the lower end of its forecast range of 323 to 338 Mt.
Rio Tinto has come close to losing its crown as the world's top producer of the key steel-making ingredient, with total production for the year, including from its Canadian operations, coming at 336.6 Mt.
Vale, which reports on Monday, said in October it was tracking towards the upper end of its forecast range at 325 to 335 Mt.
Rio Tinto, which is in early takeover talks with Glencore, said mined copper production on a consolidated basis grew 5% to 240,000 tonnes in the quarter, higher than Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 214,400 tonnes.
Annual copper production grew 11% to 883,000 tonnes, coming higher than the top end of Rio's forecast range, driven by the continued underground ramp-up, higher grades and recovery rates at its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia.
A potential tie-up with Glencore could buttress Rio's copper portfolio as surging demand from artificial intelligence and energy transition boosts the appeal of the highly conductive metal.
Rio said it will release the unit cost performance for 2025 and 2026 forecast in its full year results release on February 19.
(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru)
