Rio Tinto Ltd has followed the lead of larger rival and world's biggest miner BHP Billiton Ltd in drawing attention to future prospects in uranium.

As the company unveiled a record 2006 annual net profit jump of 48 per cent to $US7.438 billion ($A9.59 billion), it repeatedly mentioned yellowcake as one product to keep an eye on.

Chairman Paul Skinner said increased production of uranium by Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest producer of yellowcake, may be on the cards.

"We've probably got the opportunity for a significant lift in our uranium production within the short to medium term," Mr Skinner said.

He also said the market would have higher contract prices for uranium this year and beyond.

"What you will see increasingly in 2007, and particularly in 2008 and beyond, is a greater proportion of contracts written in this more heady environment," Mr Skinner said.

Outgoing chief executive Leigh Clifford, who will be replaced by US-born Tom Albanese in May, says Rio Tinto has expansion prospects.

"We are extremely well placed in the uranium market," chief executive Leigh Clifford said.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see a uranium contribution increase in the coming years."

BHP Billiton, which owns the world's largest uranium deposit Olympic Dam in South Australia, used its annual general meetings in Australia and the UK last year to also draw attention to uranium.

It said that it expected the costs of producing uranium to fall into line with other energy sources such as coal and gas and added that as energy consumption in India and China escalated, those nations would look increasingly to yellowcake as an energy resource.