XML 201 R194.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.8.0.1

Financial instruments and risk management - Summary of credit ratings (Detail) - Capital and liquidity risk management [member]	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Long term rating [member]
Disclosure of external credit grades [Line Items]
Credit ratings	A-/A3	A-/Baa1
Short term rating [member]
Disclosure of external credit grades [Line Items]
Credit ratings	A-1/P-2	A-1/P-2
Outlook [member]
Disclosure of external credit grades [Line Items]
Credit ratings	(a)Positive/Stable	Stable/ Stable

X

- Definition

The description of the information used to assess the credit quality of financial assets with credit risk that are neither past due nor impaired that the entity does not separately disclose. [Refer: Credit risk [member]]

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/exampleRef
-Note Expiry date 2018-01-01
-Name IFRS
-Number 7
-IssueDate 2016-01-13
-Paragraph IG23
-Subparagraph d
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/XBRL?type=IFRS&num=7&date=2016-03-30&anchor=para_IG23_d&doctype=Implementation%20Guidance
-URIDate 2016-03-31

+ Details

Name:	ifrs-full_DescriptionOfOtherInformationUsedToAssessCreditQuality
Namespace Prefix:	ifrs-full_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

X

- 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

Name:	ifrs-full_DisclosureOfExternalCreditExposuresLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	ifrs-full_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

X

- Details

Name:	ifrs-full_TypesOfRisksAxis=rio_CapitalAndLiquidityRiskManagementMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

X

- Details

Name:	ifrs-full_ExternalCreditGradesAxis=rio_LongTermRatingMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

X

- Details

Name:	ifrs-full_ExternalCreditGradesAxis=rio_ShortTermRatingMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

X

- Details

Name:	ifrs-full_ExternalCreditGradesAxis=rio_OutlookMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: