You would be hard-pressed to find a single mention of their pastoral stations in their annual reports. So why do mining companies own livestock?

On Tuesday, iron ore giant Rio Tinto announced it would sublease one of its Pilbara stations, the Karratha station, to the Ngarlama Aboriginal Corporation. Rio has leased and managed the cattle station since 1966 – making it one of its longest-standing operations – yet there is no mention of it, or any of its other five Pilbara stations, in its most recent 232-page annual report.