Rio Tinto

Shares / Stock Code

RIO

Stock Exchange / Sharemarket

Australian Securities Exchange

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London listed public company headquartered in the UK, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, with executive offices in Melbourne. The two companies are joined in a dual listed companies (DLC) structure as a single economic entity, called the Rio Tinto Group. Rio Tinto was listed on the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) on 19 September, 1962.

Rio Tinto's major products include aluminium, coal, copper, diamonds, energy products, gold, industrial minerals (borates, titanium dioxide, salt and talc), and iron ore. Its activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America. There are also significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

Rio Tinto (RIO) History

It was in 1873 when Rio Tinto was formed to facilitate the copper workings in a mine located at Rio Tinto in southern Spain. Formerly called The Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation, RTC was the result of the merging between The Consolidated Zinc Corporation and The RTZ Corporation. At the same time, as a result of the merging between The Rio Tinto Company and The Consolidated Zinc Corporation, CRA was formed. It was between the years 1962 and 1995 when important mineral deposits were discovered by RTZ and CRA and these two companies developed major mining projects. These projects expanded through acquisition. It was in 1995 when a union of RTZ and CRA was made and finally in 1997, CRA Limited was transformed into Rion Tinto Limited and The RTZ Corporation was transformed into Rio Tinto plc. These two companies are known as the Rio Tinto US Holding Companies.

In 2002, the stake of the group in Coal & Allied was increased to 75.1%. In 2003, an agreement to sell the 20% interest of the group in the Sepon Project in Laos to Oxiana was signed by the group and this agreement for sale was finally completed in 2004. It was also in the same year when an agreement to allow the closer cooperation between Hamersley Iron and Robe iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia was signed between the Rio Tinto and the Robe River Joint Venture Participants. Votorantim Metais bought Mineracao Serra da Fortaleza (MSF) in the same year. The sale for Rio Tinto shareholding in the Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold was also completed also in the same year.

In the later part of 2004, the sale of the Zinkgruvan Mining to the South Atlantic Ventures was completed by Rio Tinto as well as the interests in Boke bauxite deposit in the West Africa, and the acquisition of the 51% of the interest in Rio Paracatu Mineracao and the interest in the Marcone copper deposit in Peru and the exploration tenements to Marcobre were completed by Rio Tinto. All of these happened in the later part of 2004.

In 2005, QIT-Fer et Titane, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto made an announcement of its plans of selling the total holdings in the Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Fund (LIORIF) to the RBS Capital Markets and in April 2005, a $290 million to be used for the expansion of the Hamersley Iron mines located in the Pilbara region in Western Australia was committed by the group. In November of the same year, a contract to sell the 14.5% shareholding in the Lihir Gold was entered into by Rio Tinto. This contract cost around $295 million.

In February 2006, the sale for the QIT-Fer et Titane proceeded. Approximately 26 million common shares were sold. Also, a Toronto listed company named Chariot Resources sold for approximately $10 million its 12 million warrants. In March of the same year, the shares of the Ashton Mining of Canada were acquired by Rio Tinto. The largest mining company in Russia, Norilsk Nickel and Rio Tinto made an announcement of the creation of the RioNor Exploration in April 2006. It was a joint development and exploration company located in Russia.