- Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) reports that it shipped 80.9M metric tons of iron ore from Western Australia's Pilbara region during Q2, up 8% Y/Y but short of analyst expectations of 83.3M tons, and shipped a below consensus 82.2M tons when including its Canadian business.
- Rio already was behind pace after shipping 80.8M metric tons from its global operations during Q1, and the miner now may be hard pressed to meet its full year goal of shipping 350M tons from its global operations in 2016.
- Rio also says it expects to make an investment decision on the Silvergrass project during H2; the mine is required for Rio to achieve its long-term goal of shipping 360M tons from the Pilbara, but the company says the real value of Silvergrass will be its good iron grades.