Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto, the world's third biggest mining company has held talks with Chinese aluminium giant Chinalco, over the sale of stakes in some of its operations. Chinalco may inject between $9 billion to $15 billion and increase its stake to more than 11 percent from 9 percent in Rio Tinto. Last year Chinalco, bought a 9 percent interest in Rio Tinto with Alcoa that is US aluminium giant, paying about $14 billion to become its top shareholder.
The confirmation of discussions with state-owned Chinalco, follows media speculation of a deal as Rio Tinto seeks to reduce its huge debts. This move could help the Anglo-Australian company reduce its huge debts, reported to total $39billion. Also, Rio Tinto was planning to cut 14,000 jobs to reduce costs, in December.
Also, Rio Tinto said that there was no certainty that a transaction would take place and any deal would be conditional to approval by shareholders, government and regulatory authorities.