“ By placing generation directly at the point of consumption, we strengthen the resilience and efficiency of our operations’ energy supply,” says Adam Favero, a BHP Vice-President.
Copper is the metal the transition cannot happen without, the stuff of every motor, cable and battery. It now outearns iron ore at both BHP and Rio Tinto. The miners digging the transition are now wiring themselves into it.
For Rio Tinto, the dirtiest work is not in the pit but the furnace. Turning bauxite into aluminium is ferociously powerhungry; a single smelter swallows the electricity of a small city. Rio’ s Australian plants have drawn that power from coal for decades. In a landmark deal, the Queensland and federal governments have put AU $ 2bn( US $ 1.3bn) behind repowering its Boyne smelter at Gladstone with firm renewables, part of some AU $ 7.5bn( US $ 4.9bn) of clean generation Rio is underwriting. Tomago, the country’ s largest smelter, is getting the same lifeline to survive past 2028.
The most poetic touch sits in Utah, where Rio’ s new solar plant at Kennecott is built partly from tellurium mined at Kennecott itself, an ouroboros in the desert, the mine now helping to make the panels that power it.
102 October 2026