Renewing rubber

The global resources boom has led to a surge in demand for large, heavy-duty tyres used for earth moving and other mining activities. The result has been a worldwide shortage of OTR (off the road) tyres.

Production levels at leading tyre manufacturers have not kept pace with the increase in new trucks and loaders purchased by the mining industry. While tyre production is set to increase, the shortage of supply will continue at least for the next 12 months to two years.

At Rio Tinto Iron Ore, the prospect of tyre shortages is a major concern and has the potential to impact on the continuous supply of iron ore and mine expansion activities.

In finding a solution, we have had to look within our own business-improving tyre management practices and taking responsibility for the full life of a tyre from acquisition to disposal. A 'cradle-to-grave' approach ensures we look for opportunities at every step of a tyre's life to preserve its use.

The Rio Tinto Integrated Tyre Management Strategy has been introduced and is based on three key components: use, reuse and recycle.

• Use is the development of improved tyre management systems and tools on-site to extend the life of tyres.
• Reuse refers to retreading to further extend a tyre's life time. Rio Tinto Tyres, created as a subsidiary company to Rio Tinto in 2006, has established a tyre retreading facility in Perth, Western Australia. The facility currently retreads tyres from RTIO Pilbara operations. The potential exists to offer the Perth based retread service to other Rio Tinto operations in the region.
• Recycle is ensuring that rubber stripped from old tyres to make way for retreads is utilised in another form that can bring benefits to society and reduce disposal to land fill. Tyre buffings and peelings are reused in a variety of applications from flooring in children's playgrounds to road surfaces.

The use, reuse and recycle approach is making a positive contribution to sustainable development, achieving five of the nine sustainable development principles. Those principles are:

• optimise long term economic value
• reduce net emissions
• reduce injury and illness incidents
• reduce net land disturbance
• contribution to community capacity.

Optimise long-term economic value

Extending the tyre life cycle and ensuring operations are not interrupted by tyre supply shortage contributes to the strong economic growth and continuing success of RTIO Pilbara operations.

Reduce net emissions

A reduction in the quantity of tyres consumed through careful management of use reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions from tyre manufacturing. Further, a life cycle assessment is being conducted to compare greenhouse emissions from the retread process with the manufacture of new tyres.

Reducing injury and illness incidents

The integrated tyre management strategy ensures the integrity of RTIO Pilbara operations' tyres at every step of the life cycle. Employee safety is never compromised by unsafe tyres.

Reduce net land disturbance

Fewer tyres are sent to landfill as tyre life is extended through retreading and further applications are being found for tyre recycling.

Contribution to community capacity

Rio Tinto Tyres retreading facility is providing local jobs. Increased viability of recycling is also making a positive contribution to related industries. When supply once again catches up with demand for tyres, we will not be deterred from our sustainable development journey - that is, we will make sure the use, reuse and recycling of tyres continues to deliver more value with less impact.