Global mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd appears all set to achieve another record earnings in 2010, paving the way for some billion-dollar share buyback initiatives by next year but the company declared that first on its list are planned spending for numerous projects over the next 18 months.

Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said on Monday that his priority is to double the company's mining activities by the end of 2011, with up to $13 billion of capital expenditures then the capital return options could be undertaken next, which analysts said could amount to some $10 billion worth of share buybacks.

Aside from the mining expansions and the possibility of share buybacks, Rio Tinto, according to chief financial officer Guy Elliot could still look into some ways to acquire additional assets though he stressed that the focus is on the growth of the mining firm's valued projects.

In a report by Bloomberg on Monday, many analysts had predicted that Rio Tinto would be able to attain some $13.9 billion of total profit this year, coming from the $4.9 billion it netted in the previous year.

From such windfalls, Mr Elliot said that the resource company could very well afford to initiate some share buyback plans in 2011 but Rio Tinto is mostly concentrating on a five-year iron ore expansion blueprint that could eventually cost some $14.8 billion over the next half-decade.

Second only to BHP Billiton Ltd, Rio Tinto's iron ore export operations netted a total of $7.1 billion in 2009 and from that, the mining giant has embarked on a ramped up expansion of its activities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, revealing a total of $6 billion investments for its iron ore assets in the mining hub since the third quarter of this year.

Some $4.4 billion from the revealed investments in Pilbara would be utilised to finance Rio Tinto's growth projects as the mining firm increased its iron ore deposits in the region by two billion tonnes, which currently comprises of 14 deposit sites, en route to its total iron ore reservoir of 14.4 billion tonnes in the Pilbara region alone.