The Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) share price could be greatly influenced by its potential success with its lithium operations in the future. A leading expert has given their view on how the ASX mining share's push into the battery commodity could be significant.
As the chart above shows, the Rio Tinto share price has been highly volatile in the last few years. That volatility has been largely caused by the shifting iron ore price.
However, the mining giant is exploring different, future-facing commodities such as copper and lithium to diversify and grow its global operations and profit.
One expert has outlined their positivity on Rio Tinto and how lithium could become a significant player in that commodity.
Broker Ord Minnett positive on the miner
Writing on The Bull, Tony Paterno from Ord Minnett has called Rio Tinto shares a buy.
Paterno highlighted the ASX mining share recently at an investor conference, providing an update regarding its volume guidance.
The Ord Minnett expert also noted that Rio Tinto reiterated its confidence about the outlook for the Arcadium Lithium CDI (ASX: LTM) transaction and the lithium market as a whole. Its US$7 billion acquisition of Arcadium is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Paterno highlighted that Rio Tinto's management team was bullish about lithium and expected the market size to "grow five-fold" by 2035.
Combining Arcadium with Rio's Jadar and Rincon assets would make it "the third biggest lithium miner in the world", according to the Ord Minnett expert.
Rio Tinto advised that the development of the "super sites" in Argentina was expected to come with production costs in the lower quartile of its competitors.
At the time of the US$2.5 billion announcement to expand Rincon, Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said:
The attractive long-term outlook for lithium driven by the energy transition underpins our investment in Rincon. We are dedicated to developing this tier 1, world-class resource at scale at the low end of the cost curve.
We are equally committed to meeting the highest ESG standards, leveraging our advanced technology to halve the amount of water used in processing, while continuing to grow our mutually beneficial partnerships with local communities and Salta province.
Building on Argentina's supportive economic policies, skilled workforce, and exceptional resources we are positioning ourselves to become one of the top lithium producers globally.
This investment alongside our proposed Arcadium acquisition ensures that lithium will become one of the key pillars of our commodity portfolio for decades to come.
The ASX mining share certainly appears confident that lithium will play a major part in its future.
Rio Tinto share price snapshot
In the last 12 months, the Rio Tinto share price has fallen by 6%.
