Rio Tinto announces growth targets and strategies

Monday, 26 November 2007 12:50:38 (GMT+2)

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has announced its assets and growth prospects in a move to justify its earlier rejection of BHP Billiton's proposed takeover. According to Rio Tinto, they have sufficient capacity and resources to achieve exceptional growth. Company CEO Tom Albanese will today present the company's annual investor seminar and is expected to point to several topics of particular interest within the company's business activities.

In its press release, Rio Tinto has outlined a conceptual plan to increase its iron ore production to 600 million mt per annum, stating that they have committed US$2.4 billion (AU$2.73 billion) to develop two iron ore deposits in the Pilbara region of Western Australia: the Mesa A and Brockman 4 iron ore deposits.

Apart from the Pilbara projects, Rio Tinto has revealed its Simandou project in Guinea, Africa, as having a potential annual production capacity of 70 million mt of iron ore, which may be expanded up to 120 million mt and 170 million mt in the future, with first production scheduled for 2013.

Having recently rejected a US$350 billion merger proposal from rival mining giant BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto has also said it is well-positioned as the world's major aluminum and bauxite producer, with an excellent portfolio of growth projects and a strong market outlook following its recent acquisition of Alcan.

In comments included in the company's release, Tom Albanese said, "The rise in global mineral demand is a trend that we expect to continue for decades because of fundamental demographic and economic shifts, especially in developing economies like China and India. We believe that the value in Rio Tinto is yet to be fully reflected."

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