http://online.wsj.com/home-page
Mining Company’s Management Plans to Weigh Growth Options Next Year
MELBOURNE, Australia—Rio Tinto PLC hinted it might soon be ready to call an end to austerity, with its top management planning to weigh future growth options in 2015 after two years of aggressive spending cuts.
Suggesting the worst of its cutbacks may be in the past, Sam Walsh, the Anglo-Australian company’s chief executive, said his team would prepare new investment proposals to be put to the board next year, in a sign the company might be preparing to change direction.
The world’s No. 2 iron-ore producer has been one of the most aggressive cost cutters among major mining companies, slashing spending and selling unwanted assets after commodity prices took a tumble and investors began to demand greater capital discipline following years of heavy investment.
Mr. Walsh said the focus in 2014 would remain on paying down debt and strengthening the balance sheet. “That brings us to next year, and brings us to options we are providing the board in relation to how the future cash flow (will) be used,” he told a press briefing Thursday, following the company’s Australian annual general meeting.