Rio Tinto will reward shareholders with a special dividend after announcing bumper profits (PAUL CROCK)

Sydney (AFP) – Mining giant Rio Tinto will reward shareholders with a special dividend after reporting another year of bumper profits Wednesday, boosted by global asset sales last year.

Annual net profit for the Anglo-Australian giant jumped 56 percent to US$13.64 billion after the sale of its stake in the Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia and Europe’s biggest aluminium smelter in Dunkerque, France.

The miner will use the cash returns from the divestments to issue a special dividend of US$4.0 billion to shareholders. The dividends take the full-year cash splash for shareholders to a record US$13.5 billion.

“These strong results reflect the efforts of the team to implement our value-over-volume strategy as we continued to strengthen the portfolio and invest in future growth,” said Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques. 

Underlying profit for the year to December 31 — a measure preferred by the world’s second-largest miner — was US$8.81 billion, a two percent increase from the previous period but above market expectations.

The strong result came despite underlying earnings for iron ore, Rio’s biggest commodity, slipping by three percent to US$6.5 billion.

Shares in Rio closed 0.59 percent higher to Aus$95.12 on Wednesday in Sydney ahead of the result announcement.

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