Global product stewardship policy
Rio Tinto Borates is committed to ensuring that its products are safe for people and the environment—from the time we mine our deposits through our products’ ultimate use in hundreds of applications. We have established a reputation for reliability in this area among employees, customers, neighbors, and health and safety officials based on our product stewardship standards and practices.
Rio Tinto Borates employs the best available technology and follows exacting procedures to ensure that these standards and practices meet or exceed product safety requirements everywhere we do business. These procedures include:
- Mapping our deposits and practicing selective mining as needed to avoid impurities—including those that occur naturally in many ore bodies
- Sampling and testing ores we mine and purchase to analyze their composition, quality and safety
- Sampling and testing our finished products to ascertain their composition, quality and safety
- Investing in equipment and monitoring and encouraging safe workplace behaviors
- Taking health, safety and environmental impacts into consideration when developing new products and applications
- Developing safety information for people who work with our products at every stage in the supply chain
- Ensuring that we comply with mandatory product legislation and regulations
These procedures are subject to regular audits conducted by internal and independent experts. Rio Tinto Borates also commissions independent research on the health effects and benefits of its products—and completes life cycle assessments to measure their environmental effects—to advance scientific understanding of these valuable minerals.
Borax Europe Limited, Rio Tinto Minerals Asia Pte Ltd, and U.S. Borax Inc., also operate under the trade name Rio Tinto Borates.
Resources
August 2021