The world's third-largest mining company Rio Tinto has announced the discovery of a new three billion-mt iron ore resource in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, reinforcing its claim that it has considerable assets in its iron ore operations which BHP Billiton's merger proposal fails to take into account.
Rio Tinto said the increase in resources came through the discovery of a major new resource at Caliwingina and the significant improvement in confidence in resources associated with known deposits, further strengthening its leading position in the Pilbara region.