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Media Release

Final Results 24 May 2000

Stunning shareholder protest vote at Rio Tinto AGMs

Rio Tinto has released the results of the Annual General Meeting voting results on the two shareholder resolutions moved by union organisations internationally. Despite unanimous board opposition there has been substantial investor support for the resolutions put forward by unions.

Resolution on good corporate governance

FOR: 113,858, 565

AGAINST: 446,722,142

The resolution achieved a 20.3% support

Resolution on international minimum labour standards

FOR: 95,413,654

AGAINST: 454,262,111

The resolution achieved 17.3% support.

For shareholder resolutions which have been opposed by the board this represents unprecedented support.

The Coalition has been informed that a further 8% of votes cast formally abstained. This means that up to 28% of all shares voted saw fault with the board of directors' recommendation to oppose the resolutions.

It is also our understanding that the vote achieved would have been even higher but for assurances given by senior management to some large investors that the issues raised in the resolutions would be addressed.

Thanks are due to the many large and small investors who considered these two resolutions on their merit and voted to support them. This result indicates that no company board can take its shareholders for granted; that shareholders are concerned about standards of corporate governance in the companies they invest in, and they are increasingly concerned about the management of risk in relation to human rights abuses in company operations.

If you want to know more about other camapigns with respect to Rio Tinto, please visit the CFMEU website at www.cfmeu.asn.au/mining-energy or the ICEM website at www.icem.org

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