Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies, not an investment fund, listed in London, Sydney and New York. Its tracked water footprint is a single strategic bet: ElectraLith, an Australian startup whose membrane technology pulls lithium from brine without using water. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Rio Tinto takes its name from a river. The Río Tinto runs red and acidic through southern Spain, stained by thousands of years of mining at the site where a syndicate of investors founded the company in 1873. A century and a half later Rio Tinto is one of the largest mining companies on earth, and it lands in a water database for a reason that suits that origin: mining and water are inseparable, for better and worse.
Rio Tinto is not a fund, and it runs no water-investment thesis. Its one tracked water bet, ElectraLith, almost reads as a confession: an Australian startup spun out of Monash University, whose membrane process extracts and refines lithium straight from brine without the giant evaporation ponds that swallow water across the arid Lithium Triangle. Rio Tinto has backed ElectraLith across two funding rounds and is hosting its first pilot at the Rincon lithium operation in Argentina.
Rio Tinto spends far more on water as an operator than as an investor. In March 2026 Rio Tinto and the Western Australian Government formed an A$1.1 billion, 50:50 joint venture to build the Dampier seawater desalination plant, which will supply up to eight gigalitres a year and let the company draw less from the Bungaroo and Millstream aquifers it has leaned on for decades. That is the pattern across its water story: water arrives first as a licence-to-operate problem, and only second as something to invest in.
Rio Tinto, led by chief executive Simon Trott since August 2025, is pushing hard into lithium and copper, the metals the energy transition runs on, and both are water-hungry to produce. That is the tension worth watching here: every tonne of transition metal Rio Tinto digs needs water the world is short of, and its rare water investment is a quiet bet that the cleanest way through is to stop using so much of it in the first place.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Rio Tinto invest in?
- Rio Tinto invests mostly in its own mines: iron ore, aluminium, copper, lithium, borates and titanium dioxide. It is not a venture fund. The few startups it backs are strategic, technologies that fit its operations, and its single tracked water investment is ElectraLith, a low-water lithium-extraction company.
- Is Rio Tinto a water investor?
- Rio Tinto is not a water fund or a venture firm. It is one of the world's largest mining companies, listed in London, Sydney and New York. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional because it has backed one tracked water company, ElectraLith, while managing water mainly as a mine operator.
- What water companies has Rio Tinto backed?
- Rio Tinto has backed one water company tracked by (don't) Waste Water: ElectraLith, an Australian startup whose membrane technology extracts and refines lithium from brine without the water-hungry evaporation ponds the industry usually relies on. Rio Tinto is hosting ElectraLith's first pilot at its Rincon lithium operation in Argentina.
- Who runs Rio Tinto?
- Rio Tinto has been led by chief executive Simon Trott since 25 August 2025, when he succeeded Jakob Stausholm. Trott previously ran Rio Tinto's iron ore business and was the company's first chief commercial officer. Rio Tinto is chaired by Dominic Barton and listed in London, Sydney and New York.
- Where is Rio Tinto based?
- Rio Tinto is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with a major operational base in Australia, where much of its mining sits. Founded in 1873 around the Río Tinto river in southern Spain, the company now operates in roughly 35 countries and trades as RIO in London, Sydney and New York.