The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is on the move on Tuesday morning.
At the time of writing, the mining giant's shares are up 0.5% to $94.71.
This follows the release of the miner's third quarter update.
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How did Rio Tinto perform during the third quarter?
For the three months ended 30 September, Rio Tinto reported iron ore production of 84.3Mt and iron ore shipments of 82.9Mt. While the latter was up 4% quarter on quarter, it was still a touch short of expectations. The consensus estimate was for iron ore shipments of 84.5Mt.
Also falling a touch short of expectations was its aluminium production of 759kt. This was up 4% but short of consensus estimates of 776kt.
Unfortunately, it was the same for alumina production and bauxite production. The former came in 1% lower at 1,838kt, which was well-below consensus estimates of 1,982kt. Whereas the latter was down 3% to 13.7Mt, which missed the consensus estimate of 14.1Mt.
Rounding things out, mined copper rose 9% to 138kt, titanium dioxide slag was up 6% to 310kt, and iron ore pellets production rose 7% to 2.8Mt.
Management commentary
Rio Tinto's chief executive, Jakob Stausholm, appeared to be pleased with the quarter. He said:
Delivering the full potential of our assets remains a priority: production improved versus the prior quarter across most of our sites, particularly where we have implemented the Rio Tinto Safe Production System (RTSPS).
The chief executive notes that the company has also been busy working on future projects, such as a potential lithium mine. He explained:
We progressed our excel in development objective, commissioning some major projects and advancing the next tranche of Pilbara mines, agreeing to enter a joint venture with Baowu to develop Western Range and modernising the joint venture covering the Rhodes Ridge project in the East Pilbara, unlocking a pathway to develop this significant, high quality resource.
We also approved growth capital for underground mining at Kennecott, early works funding at Rincon Lithium and continue to progress Oyu Tolgoi. Our proposal to take Turquoise Hill Resources private has unanimous support of the Turquoise Hill Board who have recommended shareholders vote in favour of the transaction.
We continue to deliver our strategy with decarbonisation at its centre. Last week we announced a partnership with the Government of Canada to invest up to C$737 million over eight years to decarbonise our Rio Tinto Fer et Titane operations in Québec, and to position the business as a centre of excellence for critical minerals processing.
Outlook
Despite the softer than expected production, Rio Tinto has left the majority of its FY 2022 production guidance unchanged, which may be supporting the Rio Tinto share price this morning.
However, it now expects iron ore shipments at the bottom end of its guidance range of 320Mt to 335Mt. Positively, its iron ore cost guidance of US$19.5-US$21.0 per tonne remains unchanged despite this.
The only real change to guidance has seen Rio Tinto reduce its refined copper production guidance to 190kt to 220kt from 230kt to 290kt. This has led to its copper C1 unit cost guidance in 2022 being revised 20 US cents higher to the range of 150 to 170 US cents per pound.
