Rio Tinto has kept its promise to shareholders with a $US2 billion ($A2.59 billion) share buyback, but with earnings dented by falling commodity prices has not committed to further returns.
The mining giant also increased its dividend by nearly 10 per cent, meaning a total of $US6 billion being returned to investors.
Diving commodity prices, especially in iron ore, removed $US912 million from Rio's annual underlying profit, which still beat market expectations at $US9.3 billion.
Net profit in 2014 rose 78 per cent to $US6.5 billion, due to lower one-off losses than 2013's multi-billion dollar writedowns on copper and aluminium assets.
Several analysts had been calling for buybacks of between $US2 billion and $US3 billion, or up to $US5 billion over several years.
"We need to get into the year and we need to see how the market settles during the year," chief executive Sam Walsh said in response to questions about shareholder returns beyond 2015.
The move is widely viewed as a way of placating shareholders at a time when rival mining giant Glencore is making merger approaches and criticising Rio management, though that notion was dismissed by Mr Walsh.
"We are not about to be distracted by what somebody might be hollering from the grandstand," he said.
The buyback is far more focussed on Rio's smaller London share market listing, with barely $US400 million ($A519 million) of the $US2 billion offer being made to holders of Australian shares.
Mr Walsh said it would be a difficult year ahead for the mining industry, with no sight of a price recovery.
"The mining industry is adjusting to a new phase of economic development in China, which is likely to result in lower price levels compared with those seen during China's years of capital intensive growth," he said.
But Rio would thrive as a lower cost producer, with 85 million of iron ore tonnes expected to drop out of the market in 2015 as high cost producers fail, Mr Walsh said.
Rio's successful cost cutting was highlighted by a fall in underlying profit of less than $US1 billion, even though commodity price falls took $US4.15 billion from its earnings.
Net debt was reduced by $US5.6 billion to $US12.5 billion during the year.
Fat Prophets resources analyst David Lennox said the buyback might disappoint some shareholders, as $US2 billion was a small amount for a company the size of Rio.
Its financial results were excellent, he said, with earnings increases in aluminium and copper very pleasing in a year when iron ore profits fell 18 per cent.
STRONG RESULT DESPITE COMMODITY PRICE FALLS
* Net profit of $US6.5b, up 78 pct from $US3.67b in 2013
* Underlying earnings of $US9.3b, down nine pct from $US10.2b
* Final dividend of 119 US cents per share, up from 108.5 US cents
BREAKDOWN OF RIO TINTO'S PERFORMANCE
* Iron ore - $US8.1b profit, down 18 pct from $US9.86b in 2013
* Coal - $US210m loss, down from $US33m profit
* Copper - $US912m profit, up 11 pct from $US821m
* Aluminium - $US1.2b profit, up from $US557m
* Diamonds/minerals - $US401m profit, up 15 pct from $US350m
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