AUSTRALIAN shares have closed slightly higher, boosted by gains from resource companies on the back of record production results from mining heavyweight Rio Tinto.

Rio has announced it had increased iron ore production by six per cent to a record 127.2 million tonnes during the first half of the year.

The world's second largest iron ore miner also shipped a record 118.6 million tonnes of the steelmaking mineral, a four per cent lift.

Rio's shares closed 75 cents, or 1.37 per cent, higher at $55.52, while those of BHP Billiton finished 18 cents, or 0.54 per cent, up at $33.43, but Fortescue Metals Group shares were flat at $3.50.

In other resource company activity, Paladin Energy's shares soared with investors cheering the uranium miner's performance, notching up record production for the 2012-13 financial year.

Paladin jumped seven cents, or 7.29 per cent, to $1.03.