Rio Tinto reports record spend with Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses

Rio Tinto says it spent a record amount with Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses in 2025, putting fresh attention on the scale of Aboriginal participation in the Pilbara supply chain. In a national supplier update released on 27 March, the miner said its total spend with Australian suppliers rose to A$19.7 billion in 2025, including a record A$1.1 billion with Indigenous businesses and A$820 million with Traditional Owner businesses.

A separate Western Australia release gave a more detailed picture of how that money was distributed around Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operations. The company said spend with Indigenous-owned businesses in WA rose 25 per cent to A$968 million in 2025, while spend with Traditional Owner businesses grew more than 26 per cent to A$719 million. It also said it worked with more than 2,300 suppliers in Western Australia and that Pilbara-based supplier spend had more than doubled since 2022 to A$1.1 billion.

The company’s effort to place those figures within a broader story of local economic participation. Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Matthew Holcz said: “Traditional Owners significantly contribute to the prosperity of WA by allowing mining to occur on their Country.” He also tied the figures to the company’s annual supplier awards, where three Traditional Owner and Indigenous organisations were among those recognised.

The numbers do not settle wider debates about mining and Indigenous justice, and Rio Tinto’s figures are company-released procurement data rather than an independent audit of social outcomes. But they do indicate how large Indigenous business participation has become within major project delivery, especially in regions where land use agreements and long-running relationships with Traditional Owners directly shape how mining proceeds. In procurement terms alone, the figures are substantial.

For Indigenous economic development advocates, the more important question is what comes next. Procurement growth can support employment, business capability, and regional wealth, but only if it is sustained and translated into longer-term control over contracts, assets, and decision-making. Rio Tinto’s latest announcement therefore lands as both a positive milestone and a reminder that headline spending figures are only one measure of whether First Nations businesses are moving from participation to lasting power within Australia’s resource economy.