{
  "id": 9536890,
  "title": "Mining giant Rio Tinto planning to expand metals trading business: sources",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/mining-giant-rio-tinto-planning-to-expand-metals-trading-business",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-24T05:55:13.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Business Times - Companies & Markets",
    "slug": "the-business-times-companies-markets",
    "url": "https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/energy-commodities/mining-giant-rio-tinto-planning-expand-metals-trading-business-sources"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-largest miner, is planning to expand its metal trading operations, according to sources familiar with its strategy. This move is part of a drive by its new leader, CEO Simon Trott, to make the business more agile. Rio has traditionally focused on mining operations, but historically has not had a vast trading operation and has struggled to maximize value from all parts of its business. This was highlighted during talks over a potential acquisition of Glencore, a rival with expansive trading operations. However, those discussions were dropped. Rio aims to introduce third-party trading operations, which are typically handled by specialist traders, marking a significant shift from its current model. They see this as a way to extract more profit from their assets. Focus areas include the alumina market, where there is oversupply in some regions and shortage in others, and the North American copper market, where Rio has spare smelting capacity. The company is also considering using financial derivatives to hedge against commodity price risks. Rio's commercial team currently has about 20 traders, with plans to add more.",
  "summary": "This is part of a drive by its new leader to make the business more agile",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}