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Other reserves - Additional information (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Millions | Dec. 31, 2017 | Dec. 31, 2016
--- | --- | ---
Disclosure Of Reserves Within Equity [Line Items] |  |
Other reserves | $ 12,284 | $ 9,216
Rio Tinto plc [member] |  |
Disclosure Of Reserves Within Equity [Line Items] |  |
Other reserves | 11,992 | 11,988
Merger reserve [Member] |  |
Disclosure Of Reserves Within Equity [Line Items] |  |
Other reserves | 11,936 |
Merger reserve [Member] | Rio Tinto plc [member] |  |
Disclosure Of Reserves Within Equity [Line Items] |  |
Other reserves | $ 11,936 | $ 11,936

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- Definition Line items represent concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes of the table. + References No definition available. + Details
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- Definition A component of equity representing reserves within equity, not including retained earnings. [Refer: Retained earnings] + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/exampleRef -Name IAS -Number 1 -IssueDate 2016-01-13 -Paragraph 78 -Subparagraph e -URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/XBRL?type=IAS&num=1&date=2016-03-30&anchor=para_78_e&doctype=Standard -URIDate 2016-03-31 + Details
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- Details
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