2 questions lodged at 2026 Rio Tinto (RIO) hybrid AGM
May 11, 2026
Below is the text of the 2 written questions submitted at the 135 minute Rio Tinto (RIO) 4pm (WST) hybrid in Perth and London on May 6, 2026. As usual, the China question was censored. See notice of meeting. Both meetings were held at once for the first time, something they should have done years ago. Last year was a 9.30am hybrid in Perth with 20% support for a hostile resolution proposing an end to the DLC structure. See text of 2 questions submitted in 2025, only one of which was asked. Lodged these 3 questions at 2024 AGM and these 11 questions at the 2021 AGM, only two of which were half asked. This is the worst history of online question censorship I've encountered. The proxies were not disclosed early with the 2026 chair address, or the overly brief inaugural Simon Trott CEO address, both of which dropped less than 7 minutes before kick-off. There were no material protest votes.
Sent this message through the Lumi platform 15 minutes before kick off:
"Hello Rio, only 1 of my 2 questions were read out last year and in 2021 it was 2 out of 11. No other major company restricts individual shareholders to 2 questions over an entire meeting. Please make sure there is an even spread between in person and online questions tonight. In previous meetings, too much time has been allocated to the room and you've left online questioners feeling disrespected with multiple unasked questions. Regards, Stephen Mayne"
Q1. Chinalco is our largest overall shareholder with 14% of the PLC shares on issue. Were they part of the "more than 25%" of PLC shareholders that the chair met with in recent months? Did Chinalco express a view on collapsing the DLC last year and how do we deal with them as a controlled entity of the Chinese Government? Have there ever been any discussions about giving Chinalco a board seat given that we currently have 10 directors, yet they are unrepresented on the board despite owning more than 10% of all shares on issue? What are the instruments which limit the size of Chinalco's shareholding and have any discussions been held with the Australian Government about changing these controls?
Answer: As usual, they censored the sensitive questions about relations with China, Rio Tinto's largest shareholder. Even worse, chair Dominic Barton claimed there were no more online questions at the end of the meeting when he prematurely wrapped up the debate after 135 minutes. Wrong. Watch this video of him doing that, via Twitter.
Q2. Question for the auditor on resolution 15.
KPMG replaced PwC as our auditor at the beginning of 2020. When is the next competitive tender for the audit due to be held? Also, could our new audit signing partner, Perth-based Graham Hogg, outline how he has found the handover from Adrian King, the out-going KPMG partner who signed the full year accounts in February this year. How involved has Graham been in past audits and what was the process through which he was selected to be the new signing partner? The chairman said he visited 18 different Rio Tinto sites around the world over the past 12 months. How many sites is Graham Hogg likely to visit as audit signing partner over the next 12 months and how many has he visited in the past?
Answer: chair Dominic Barton commendably read this in full then audit committee chair Sharon Thorne explained they they have a policy which requires a mandatory competitive tender every 10 years and a mandatory change ever 20 years, which is good practice. New audit signing partner Graham Hogg then gave a good summary of his on-boarding process and history of site visits. As the chair remarked at the end, this whole exchange was most unusual but I would argue healthy and illuminating. Watch video of question being asked via Twitter, plus this second two minutes of the response.
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