Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rio Tinto Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Tom Gallop. Please go ahead. I'm joined here by Dominic Barton, our Chair of the Board. Just a reminder that this call is for analysts and investors only. If you do not belong to one of these two groups, please kindly disconnect now. Please note this call is being recorded, and it is 30 minutes in total. There will be a short time for Q&A at the end for analysts, and we'll limit it to one question per person in this time. Many thanks, and with that, I'll hand over to our Chair, Dominic Barton. Hey, Tom. Thank you very much. I hope everyone can hear me. I just wanted to make a few comments and then keen to open it up for any questions. I'm actually calling in from Singapore. The team from London is having difficulty getting in because I was thinking also to have Simon be able to say something, but I think he's just able to listen. He can't speak in here, but you're going to get a chance to talk with him unless we're able to get the technology fixed. Again, really appreciate everyone joining. We are so excited to announce Simon Trott as our new CEO today. He's designate, but will be the CEO in action on the 25th of August. There's time for him, but also with Jakob to be in a transition. Obviously, they know each other well. I just wanted to really focus on two things. One is kind of why Simon, and then maybe talk a little bit about the process that we have used. Maybe just to say again, we've had a lot of internal candidates to select from, and we also looked externally in this process. With Simon, we think we've got an outstanding leader to take us into the next era for Rio Tinto. I've talked about this before, but I think the focus we have is clear in terms of the strategy, what Jakob had laid out in the December Capital Markets Day last year. In terms of our focus, the four areas, the iron ore, copper, aluminum, and the lithium growth is kind of our area of focus. We want to diversify a little more away from iron ore, but those are the core areas. It is a growth. Approach that we have over the next 10 years with a lot of, I think, clear projects in the pipe to be able to deliver that. The focus that we're most keen on right now, with that strategy being said, is around accelerating the operational performance and driving cost and financial discipline. We think there's a lot of value for shareholders that can be unlocked in that. We also think, again, we have a lot of opportunities in the portfolio, the growth options, and we need to focus and deliver on the best of them. We think Simon is the right leader to be able to take us through that. As you know, he brings a deep understanding of mining and a track record of delivering operational excellence and creating value across the business. I'd say he's got a unique combination of. Depth of understanding of the business across the board, but also an innovation mindset. He challenges orthodoxies. I think we saw that on many dimensions in his leadership in the iron ore business. As you know, he came into a period of significant challenge on practically every front. Operationally, a lot of challenges with many different locations that were not necessarily benchmarking themselves against each other and operating in an integrated manner. We effectively lost our license to operate with the Juukan Gorge, blowing up the Juukan Gorge, we lost our license with many of the government stakeholders in the areas. We also did not have a growth of options actually in iron ore as we looked out going forward beyond 2030 in any significant way. What Simon has done systematically is address all of those. Issues on the operation side, on the reestablishing relationships with traditional owners. Then the unlocking Rhodes Ridge, ramping up Gudai-Dari to full capacity within one year of completing the commissioning. It is now running well over nameplate. Delivering the Western Range, which we a couple of weeks ago just announced again on time and on budget. Many of the sort of innovations that we are now taking across the system have come from there. That is not to say there were not innovations in other parts of the business too, but Simon just has that combination of a deep understanding of the business with the kind of innovation and pushing for performance. We are very excited by this and kind of the next stages. I think I probably should shut up there and let you guys, if there are any questions as we go through it. Happy to answer any of that. Or try to now. Obviously, there will be times for us to connect up, including with Simon, which I look forward to. Tom, maybe over to you or to Sharon. Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now go to the first question. One moment, please. Your first question comes from the line of Alain Gabriel from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you for the opportunity. Dom, a question I have, the first question is on the press release this morning and just your comments as well. There is a big focus on cost discipline and operational excellence. Where do you think are these big opportunities across your portfolio to deliver cost or operational improvements? What would you or can you do differently there or what Simon can do or would do differently there on these two dimensions? Thank you. Thanks for the question. We think it's actually across the organization. It's not just focused on one particular area. We think it's on the operating performance side. There's opportunities. We've seen some, as I said, significant shifts and opportunities from the iron ore side. We're seeing that also on the aluminum side, and we think there's more we can do as it relates to the copper piece of it. Number one, I think it's a broad range of things. The second part of it is our organization is quite complex. I think it's okay to have a complex organization with a complex set of businesses, but I think there's a lot of room to simplify what we do. It was very interesting in all of the kind of the discussions we had with. The different, particularly the internal candidates, there was quite a strong common view that there are opportunities on that front. In just simplifying the way we operate and work. In having four key businesses or pillars, if you will, how to deal with the matrix, the functions, the regions, and so forth. We are operating in 35 countries. There are a lot of things that we must do to be able to operate effectively and have our license to operate. We think there is lots of opportunity to simplify that and improve how we do it. Improving our decision speed, and certainly cost-related to that. It is effectiveness as well as efficiency. I do not know, Alain, if that gets at your question or not. Thank you. We will now go to the next question. Your next question comes from the line of Lyndon Fagan from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Thanks for the opportunity. Good afternoon, Dominic. The press has quoted, I guess, the board as saying the next CEO should be open to transformative merger and acquisition deals. I'm just wondering, Dominic, if you can comment on that aspect. I mean, it's been all over the press. Is this a priority for you specifically? I guess if it is, how do you expect to see the business reshape? Thanks. Yeah. I think there's been a lot of different views in the media that are of what we're doing or what we are. I just want to underscore a couple of things. One is we think that there's a lot of opportunity in what we have in front of us in terms of the growth program that's being laid out and on the operational performance and the simplification and cost side. We think there's a lot we can actually do that's right in front of us that's directly within our control. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have eyes wide open in terms of what's happening in the rest of the industry and where it is. For example, some of the media coverage was, "If we picked X, that means we're going for it on M&A." If we picked Y, that doesn't mean that's just complete, honestly, nonsense actually on all of the four internal candidates on that side. I wouldn't be reading anything into that other than that we say that there's a lot of opportunity in front of us that we think we can improve shareholder value, which I think we're keen to go after. Again, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be eyes wide open in looking at opportunities. We know that the bar is very high. If we're ever to consider something like that, the bar is very, very high. That's kind of how we're looking at this. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Glyn Lawcock from Berenjoey. Please go ahead. Afternoon, Dominic. Just maybe an extension to Lyndon's question a little bit then. You have obviously been very aggressive in the lithium space with Arcadium and then the deals in Chile with Codelco, etc. Do you feel you have now got sufficient? When you talk about diversifying away from iron ore, I think were your comments earlier, where does that lead you, you think, as a company? Thanks. Yeah. Thanks, Glyn. I think. By the way, we're very excited about iron ore too. I don't want to say we're going to pick that. We think there's still going to remain a lot of opportunity there. It's just that we think a diversification to the non-iron ore, and that obviously is the copper and aluminum and lithium. We think we're in the beginnings of that, but we think we've got a good portfolio there. I think the Arcadium acquisition and then some of the recent announcements related to Codelco and other areas in the Argentina-Chile area we're excited about. I think the question there is we need to just prioritize that. I think we always want to be careful with our capital allocation and our balance sheet in terms of how we kind of grow the different aspects. We think that, again, there's significant opportunity on lithium, but let's go step by step in terms of how we do it. That'll be up to obviously Simon and the team and how they think about it. We just want to keep the bar high on value creation as we kind of walk through that. I don't know if I'm getting at your question, Glyn, but I think it's, we've got a lot of opportunities. We just need to make sure that the bar is high on the value and we prioritize them as we go through it. I think we've got lots of opportunities. We just need to be thoughtful on capital for the long term in our balance sheet. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Yes. Thanks very much for the call. Yeah. I just guess it feels like cost and volume has been a theme which has been a focus for previous management. What are the differences you're going to do under a new CEO? Is the company going to come out with some cost and value targets over the next sort of set of results or two? I think what's different is just that in the last four to five years, I think the foundation has been built. What Jakob's done, the four core objectives, which we in the board think were excellent, including the one around best operator. I still think that Jakob would say the same. We've got still a distance to go on that front. I think the question there is, or not the question, the focus is, I think some of that's driven by organization simplification to be able to get at that. I think rigorously applying some of the things that we've learned from the SPS program across the entire company is going to be an important area of focus. I think this is something that Simon believes in as well and wants to drive. I think that there's a number of things that will be enablers, if you will, that he will want to use to help drive that. I think it's kind of like just it's upshifting it, if you will, from where we've been. Today, we actually see where those opportunities are. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rob Stein from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Look, it'd be nice to hear from Simon regarding his sort of focus on strategy. But maybe, Dom, you can attest to sort of the messages he was trying to strike home in obviously the process. Is he looking to bed down current operations and keep the status quo? Obviously, you've got a large lithium division to integrate and to grow. Or can we expect something a little bit different in terms of how the company goes forward? Yeah. Sorry, I did not hear the first part, Rob, of your comments, but I would say that I think that Simon has a pretty clear view. Each of the people sort of talked about what they wanted to focus on, what they thought the opportunities were. I think he sees a lot of opportunity, again, on the operational performance, the simplification of things. If you think about our organizing model, it is one that has not been fundamentally shifted for a number of years. I think when you are doing cultural change and so forth, you want to be careful of how many sort of things you change at once. I think there are some views about how to make that. It is not about just efficiency. It is effectiveness, how we can move more quickly, and how we operate better together. I think he's got some very clear views and ideas on that that he kind of wants to push forward. I think it's just also in the area of digital, for example, what we might be able to do more of as a company on that front. There have been some very interesting initiatives underway. I think the notion is how to scale some of those. As I said, it's not kind of just doing the same thing harder or working harder on the same things. It's doing things differently. I think he's got a pretty clear view of kind of where the opportunities might be. Obviously, he'll want to flesh that out and put it into a program. It is early days. As you said, he'll take the role on August 25. We are quite excited by the ideas he has. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Lachlan Shaw from UBS. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good afternoon, Dominic. Thanks for your time. Just a quick one on the push on simplification. How do you think about that in terms of the portfolio and the assets? I mean, is the current composition of the portfolio roughly where it needs to be, or should we be anticipating perhaps some streamlining of that portfolio on a go-forward basis? Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for that question. I think that, again, there's an opportunity to, again, when we think about simplification, I was thinking more particularly about the organizing model of how we operate. But I think, again, when we think about the capital allocation and where we see value and so forth, I think this is a chance to look at that as a—and that'll be up to Simon as he goes through it and sees it. I think, again, the notion of, "Let's simplify what we do. Let's be clear about where the market sees value and not what we also see as future long-term value and so forth in that." I think that we'll look to Simon's approach. I think we should also hear from him as how he wants to push that. The simplification is primarily on the organization side. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ian Rossouw from Barclays. Please go ahead. Morning. Thank you. Just a follow-up question on the portfolio diversification. When looking at M&A opportunities, are there any commodities that would be out of bounds for Rio? Just wondering whether you would consider going back into steelmaking coal or thermal coal. Thank you. I think we feel good about the focus we have. It's those for the energy transition. We like the four areas that we've picked, right, if you will. Obviously, iron ore is critical for that and the energy transition. Copper, aluminum, lithium. That's the focus of what we want to try and build out. And again, do it in a kind of a disciplined step-by-step way. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone keypad. I will now go to the next question. The next question is from Grant Sporre from Bloomberg Intelligence. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to ask a question. My question is really, you've talked a lot about simplification, particularly. It seems to be you're alluding to the organizational structure. How will you and the board sort of gauge whether, perhaps, you don't cut too far into some of the aspects which probably makes Rio Tinto unique? Where I'm coming from is Rio Tinto arguably has a bit more processing compared to some of the other mining companies. That does add, in my opinion, a degree of complexity versus some of its peers. With that, you've probably built out an organizational structure to support that. While I understand you wanting to look at the sort of overheads attached with that sort of organizational structure, there is a risk that you cut too far into the fabric of the organization that has been built up. How will you, and particularly the board, sort of gauge whether or what the happy medium is going forward? Yeah. Thank you, Grant. I think first I would just say that we're, as you said, we don't want to do simplification in a sense for it and just make it—how do I put it?—sort of simplify but not think about the performance of the organization. I just get it. We think we're excited by the processing businesses that we have. And I would agree with you that I think that can add complexity to it. What I think we want to get at is the, where is it that we're doing business with ourselves, if you will, in that? And I think that's where there's opportunities in terms of the functions, for example, but we'll have to see that. We would want to be, I think as a board, very careful about simplifying and that resulting in a strategic shift. I think the strategy has to drive the simplification. I think the other element is we also need to learn from previous exercises. In the past, we've done what I've called the lawnmower approach, where it's kind of like just reduce everything by 20%. That tends not to be sustainable if the kind of grass grows back again. It's getting at the root causes of where costs, and I would also say it's again about effectiveness as well as efficiency, where what's challenging in terms of how we operate and where we work. We would— There would be lots of debate if someone was coming back and saying, "We're going to simplify by just making it all look the same." I think that wouldn't fit the strategy because there are. There may be four commodities, but they are different in terms of how value is created in each of them. We do have—that is part of the strategy process that we have gone through—is how far down the value chain do you go in the different aspects of this, especially with all the changes going on. That is sort of driven by the strategy side. I think a lot of the complexity is—we are doing to—I think the sense from the team is we are doing to ourselves. How can we try and improve that, and then look at what other options we might have strategically? Thank you. There are no further questions. I will hand the call back for closing remarks. Thank you. I know we're at the time. Just a thank you. I feel badly at sort of just giving 30-second answers to really good, deep questions. I'm hoping we can follow up together. Obviously, with Simon live on the line, I think Simon hopefully is listening to all of us too, that we hear the comments, that we get a chance to engage on that, to look forward to doing that with you guys over the next little while. Thank you so much for dialing in on this and for your questions. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.