Motley Fool asks if you can retire on Rio Tinto stock

With decades to go before you need to tap your investments, you can take greater risks, weighing the chance of big losses against the potential for mind-blowing returns. But as retirement approaches, you no longer have the luxury of waiting out a downturn says Motley Fool.

The investment site then tests if mining giant Rio Tinto fits the criteria of size, consistency, stock stability, valuation and dividends retirees should be looking for.

Motley Fool’s Dan Caplinger writes:

With just five points, Rio Tinto isn’t delivering everything that conservative investors would like to see in a stock. But even with concerns about a possible slowdown in emerging market growth, the company has plenty of positive long-term prospects that should keep shareholders happy.

In May MINING.com reported on Motley Fool putting Saskatchewan’s Potash Corp. through the Warren Buffet test:

Regardless of whether Buffett would ever buy Potash, we’ve learned that while the company’s earnings are somewhat volatile and debt it a bit higher than peers’, it does exhibit many of the other characteristics of a quintessential Buffett investment: high returns on equity, a simple industry, and tenured management.