Rio Tinto is positioning lithium as its fastest-growing business division, with plans to more than triple production capacity by 2028 as demand from electric vehicles and battery storage continues to expand.
Speaking at the Fastmarkets Global Lithium, Battery and Critical Minerals conference in Las Vegas, Rio Tinto head of aluminium and lithium business unit Jérôme Pécresse said the miner expects lithium to outpace growth across its copper, iron ore and other major commodity divisions.
The mining giant plans to produce at least 61,000 tonnes of lithium in 2026 and increase capacity to 200,000 tonnes by 2028, subject to market demand. The expansion follows Rio’s acquisition of US-based Arcadium Lithium last year, providing the company with a global portfolio of mines, processing facilities and development projects across four continents.
Rio has been integrating the Arcadium assets amid a prolonged downturn in lithium prices, driven largely by oversupply from China. Despite the challenging market conditions, Pécresse said the miner remains focused on developing low-cost operations capable of remaining profitable through future price cycles.
“We want to show that we can build on time and on budget,” Pécresse said. “That’s taking up 90 per cent of my time.”
Rio is advancing new lithium projects in Argentina and Canada and sees significant potential in direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, which was a major factor behind the Arcadium acquisition. Pécresse said he expects one of Rio’s DLE projects to commence operations within the next few years.
While the company’s growth plans could eventually make it one of the world’s largest lithium producers, Pécresse stressed that market dominance is not the objective.
“We don’t have a strategy to be number one or, say, number three,” he said. “Our strategy is to have a set of assets that are big enough to give us relevance with customers.”
Pécresse declined to comment on any potential merger ambitions involving Rio Tinto and Glencore.
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