Finance

Borax has been profitable for more than a century, giving the company the means to invest in technology and training to improve its social, environmental and economic performance. The company devotes resources to initiatives designed to enhance revenues and control costs, and to improve how Borax's products and practices contribute to sustainable development. These programs include incremental improvements, major structural changes, revenue and margin enhancement projects, and collaborative efforts with Rio Tinto and other Group companies.

In 2004, Borax achieved its business improvement goals. Another major accomplishment was the harmonization of the company's Sustainable Development program with its business planning process. Borax was also selected as one of two pilot projects within Rio Tinto to create and test the process for

becoming Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) section 404 compliant.This legislation was enacted to improve the accuracy and reliability of financial statements – and to minimize fraud – by documenting and testing internal controls. Borax is a privately-held company and does not publish financial data in this report. Visit www.riotinto.com for Rio Tinto's 2004 Annual Report.

Future directions include better aligning capital investment processes with sustainable development principles. One target for 2005 is to make investments related to business improvement initiatives a priority. Another focuses on increasing the rigor with which Borax identifies and creates mitigation plans for social issues – including how investments will affect communities and employees – as part of its risk review process for evaluating investment opportunities.