Rio Tinto to sell US boron assets: market and logistics lens for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Rio Tinto is preparing to sell its US boron assets, which Bloomberg values at up to $2 billion, signalling a potential exit from one of the world’s key borates supply centres. The portfolio is expected to include the long‑life US Borax operations in California’s Mojave Desert, a major source of refined borates used in glass, ceramics and fertilisers. Any sale would reshape the borates market and could alter long‑term offtake, logistics and processing strategies for downstream industrial users.
Technical Brief
- Due diligence by bidders will likely focus on remaining ore grades, strip ratios and plant recovery efficiencies.
- For other industrial mineral operations, the sale tests market appetite for large, single‑commodity chemical feedstock assets.
Our Take
Boron rarely appears in our mining coverage compared with copper, gold or lithium, so a potential US$2 billion divestment by Rio Tinto signals that specialty industrial minerals can now attract transaction sizes more typical of base-metal assets.
For US-based boron assets, a change of ownership could open the door to operators more focused on supplying advanced glass, fertiliser and potential battery-related markets, which may prioritise process debottlenecking and by-product recovery differently from a diversified major like Rio Tinto.
Within the 54 Mining stories in our database, most M&A activity has centred on energy-transition metals; a sizeable boron transaction in the United States suggests acquirers are starting to look further along the materials chain for niche but strategically important inputs.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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