Rio Tinto has today committed an additional $2.5 billion to its ongoing share buy-back programme, returning the proceeds of the sale of Coal & Allied to its shareholders.

The capital return programme will be executed through a combination of an off-market buy-back tender, targeting A$700 million (approximately $560 million) of Rio Tinto Limited shares, with the balance of approximately $1.9 billion of additional funds being allocated to Rio Tinto's existing on-market purchases of Rio Tinto plc shares (the 'Programme').

Today's announcement brings the total of Rio Tinto share buy-backs announced during 2017 to $4 billion, comprising the $2.5 billion committed today and the $500 million and $1 billion on-market share buy-back programmes of Rio Tinto plc shares, announced on 8 February 2017 and 2 August 2017.

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said 'Returning the $2.5 billion proceeds from our Coal & Allied divestment shows our continued commitment to delivering superior value and returning cash to our shareholders. This year we have announced cash returns to shareholders of $8.2 billion, comprising $4.2 billion of dividends and $4 billion of share buy-backs. Shareholder returns of this scale are made possible by maintaining the strongest balance sheet in the sector and a disciplined capital allocation process.'

Rio Tinto plc published this content on 21 September 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 September 2017 16:59:05 UTC.

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