Communities

More than $2 million invested in the community

Our approach

Our operations are part of local communities which include Aboriginal communities, employees and contractors, near neighbours who live close to our sites, as well as local businesses who provide goods and services to our operations.

We set out to build enduring relationships with all of our communities that are characterised by mutual respect, active partnership and long term commitment.  In practice this means:

• Having robust relationships with our communities of interest - this requires understanding the issues and needs of different stakeholders as well as active engagement.
• Effectively contributing to communities by understanding the socio-economic environment and communities' vision for the future, and providing contributions that are sustainable and build long term community capacity.

The Rio Tinto Communities Standard provides a framework for implementing our communities' policy.

Each year we complete a rolling community plan to manage community actions and priorities. Baseline community assessments also inform the development of long-term plans and strategies for community engagement.

2009 activity

During 2009 we carried out assessments against the Rio Tinto Communities Standard at Hunter Valley Operations and Mount Thorley Warkworth. The assessments are carried out at each site every three years. Members of the community are invited to participate in a review of our performance as part of the assessment process. Outcomes of the Hunter Valley Operations and Mount Thorley Warkworth assessments focused on our engagement programmes, improvements to our socio-economic baseline communities' assessment process, and integrating our community plans with our site operating plans.

A new Rio Tinto communities five year target was introduced during 2009. The new target requires operations to have locally appropriate, publicly reported social performance indicators that demonstrate a positive contribution to the economic development of the communities and regions where we work, consistent with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. We will establish relevant performance indicators during 2010 and track our performance against them in our sustainable development reports going forward.

Read more about our community activities by selecting from the right hand navigation menu.