One of the worlds largest mining groups, Rio Tinto expects destoking of diamond stocks to end soon. However Rio Tinto noted that they are ready for further cutbacks if there is no inprovement in diamond sales.
On Tuesday Brett Clayton, Rio Tintos Chief Executive for copper and diamonds said that they are cutting diamond production by 20% so as to avoid loss to the company.
Mr Brett Clayton was talking at the World Mining Investment Conference in London. There has been a 70% drop in demand and a 40% drop in prices due to the economic slowdown.
On a positive note Rio Tinto expects recovery now that diamond inventories has been destocked.
Unlike diamond mining the Rio Tinto copper mining is not at danger of generating a negative balance.
Rio Tinto has diamond mining sites at Argyle- Australia, Diavik- North America and Murowa-Africa. Their diamond sales offices are located at Antwerp- Belgium and Mumbai- India.
Rio Tinto , established in 1873 is one of the leading mining and exploration company with a global presence in almost every continent. With headquarters in London and listed as a public company in the UK, Rio Tinto is also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Apart from diamonds and copper the group is also involved with the discovery, mining and processing of other minerals on earth such as aluminum, gold, energy products eg uranium, borates, coal,silver gypsum, sulphuric acid, titanium dioxide, talc and iron ore.
In 2007 Rio Tinto acquired Canadian Aluminum producer Alcan Inc. for US$ 38 billion. It has now become the global leader in Aluminium.
