Group items tagged

LONDON (Reuters) - Copper prices could hit fresh record highs this year as the Chinese economy continues to expand despite a slowdown in the United States, the chief economist of miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday.

Chinese aluminium maker Chinalco may increase its minority stake in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto if market conditions are right, but has no timetable for such a move, its president said on Monday.

Tom Albanese took over last year as the head of one of the world's biggest mining groups. But after an aggressive start to his tenure with the $44bn acquisition of aluminium group Alcan, the 50-year-old chief executive found himself on the defensive after another mining heavyweight - Marius Kloppers of BHP Billiton - launched a $160bn hostile bid for Rio Tinto.

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) expects historically high levels of copper supply disruptions to keep the market tight in the coming years, Chief Executive for copper Bret Clayton said Thursday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European antitrust regulators said Monday they had restarted a probe into miner BHP Billiton's hostile bid for rival Rio Tinto Inc., setting a new deadline to rule on it by Jan. 15.

The boss of mining firm Rio Tinto has spoken of its ''great prospects'' as it fends off a rival takeover bid from BHP Billiton.

Australian mining major Rio Tinto today said it was bullish on mining prospects in India and is looking into opportunities in eight states in the country

South Africa's competition authorities have recommended approval of BHP Billiton's takeover of mining rival Rio Tinto

"In the near term, the Chinese economy is pausing for breath. China is not completely insulated from an OECD recession and we will see an impact on Chinese exports. However, the near term slowdown of growth is substantially due to tightening of monetary policy introduced by the Chinese government last year in order to tackle inflation. Furthermore, we expect third quarter economic data to show an exaggerated slowdown, reflecting the postponement of projects during the Olympics. Looking further out, Chinese GDP will remain largely driven by the domestic economy and we expect industrialisation and urbanisation to continue apace with strengthening demand across a range of Rio Tinto products.

Australia's competition regulator has cleared Chinalco's planned $19.5bn investment in Rio Tinto, ruling that the transaction was unlikely to "unilaterally decrease global iron ore prices below competitive levels".

The big question now is what happens to Rio Tinto. Chinalco, the Chinese miner that bought a seat at the dealmaking table in February with an audacious dawn raid of Rio shares, will play a key role.

This will provide us with highly efficient microwave power and help us achieve our goal to recover ore from previously mined material that would normally have been discarded. If we can commercialise this technology at scale it will be akin to tapping into a new ore body.