Company: RTNTF
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001628280-25-006642
Chunk: 342

Company: RIO TINTO LTD
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 20-F
Chunk 342
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 a facility. These provisions are based on all regulatory requirements and any other commitments made to stakeholders. The provision excludes the impact of future disturbance that is planned to occur during the life of mine, so that it represents only existing disturbance as at the balance sheet date. Closure provisions are not made for those operations that have no known restrictions on their lives as the closure dates cannot be reliably estimated; instead a contingent liability is disclosed. Refer to note 37 for details. This applies primarily to certain Canadian smelters that have indefinite-lived water rights from local governments permitting electricity generation from hydropower stations and are not tied to a specific orebody. Close-down and restoration costs are a normal consequence of mining or production, and the majority of close-down and restoration expenditure is incurred in the years following closure of the mine, refinery or smelter. Although the ultimate cost to be incurred is uncertain, the Group’s businesses estimate their costs using current restoration standards, techniques and expected climate conditions. The costs are estimated on the basis of a closure plan, and are reviewed at each reporting period during the life of the operation to reflect known developments. The estimates are also subject to formal review, with appropriate external support, at regular intervals. The timing of closure and the rehabilitation plans for the site can be uncertain and dependent upon future capital allocation decisions, which involve estimation of future economic circumstances and business cases. In such circumstances, the closure provision is estimated using probability weighting of the different remediation and closure scenarios.

| Annual Report on Form 20-F 2024 | 190 | riotinto.com |

Financial statements | Notes to the consolidated financial statements

14 Close-down, restoration and environmental provisions continued T he initial close-down a nd restoration provision is capitalised within “Property, plant and equipment”. Subsequent movements in the close-down and restoration provisions for ongoing operations are treated as an adjustment to cost within “Property, plant and equipment”. This includes those resulting from new disturbances related to expansions or other activities qualifying for capitalisation; updated cost estimates; changes to the estimated lives of operations; changes to the timing of closure activities; and revisions to discount rates. Changes in closure provisions relating to closed and fully impaired operations are charged/credited to “Net operating costs” in the income statement. Where rehabilitation is conducted systematically over the life of the operation, rather than at the time of closure, provision is made for the estimated outstanding continuous rehabilitation work at each balance sheet date and the cost is charged to the income statement. The closure provision is represented by forecast future underlying cash flows expressed in real terms