…The article dated 17 December 2025 references an incident that was reported at the WCS mine at Blocks 1 & 2 of Simandou. Blocks 1 & 2 are being developed exclusively by WCS and neither Rio Tinto, nor the Rio Tinto-led SimFer consortium which is developing the separate and independent mine at Simandou Blocks 3 & 4, has any involvement with the WCS mine which is independent from the co-developed infrastructure which will serve both the WCS and SimFer mines.

Following this tragic incident, SimFer and Rio Tinto offered our support to WCS and we continue to engage closely with them – and all other partners - on safety across the project.

Where incidents happen on co-developed infrastructure (which is not managed by Rio Tinto), mechanisms are in place for Rio Tinto to participate in investigations and share our expertise in implementing lessons learned. All of the project partners are committed to developing Simandou to internationally recognised HSSEC standards – prioritising the safety of employees and communities. We are actively working to support the safety performance of all our partners and contractors on this project including by providing additional resourcing, supervisory capacity, and the development of injury and fatality prevention programmes…