A small piece from todays paper

Rio Tinto chief aims to return to fertilizer field

Still, sources said during last year’s takeover battle that Rio considered joining a rival bid consortium, which would have significantly reduced its investment in the potash business. In the end, BHP’s bid was blocked by the federal government and takeover talk for Potash Corp. stopped.

Today, Rio maintains it is targeting acquisitions more around the size of its current $3.9-billion bid for coal miner Riversdale Mining.

Potash is one of a “handful” of new commodities Rio is looking into to help diversify its main asset base of iron ore, copper and aluminum.

“When we look at the possibility of getting into new commodities, we have to look at whether that commodity has a big enough market ... and whether it would actually make a difference to our overall business,” said Mr. Albanese.

His interest in potash goes back more than a decade when, as head of the industrial minerals group, he led Rio’s purchase of potash assets in Argentina. In early 2009, however, the company was forced to sell its potash assets in Argentina and Saskatchewan to help pay down a massive debt it was left with after the ill-timed $38-billion purchase of Montreal-based aluminum producer Alcan in 2007, just ahead of the global credit crisis. Rio also cut thousands of jobs and millions worth of investments.

Now that commodities have bounced back due to strong demand from China, Rio is starting to spend again. Earlier this week, the miner earmarked more than one billion dollars in investments at two of its existing iron ore operations in Australia and Canada, including $163-million to raise production capacity at the Iron Ore Company of Canada, of which it owns 58.7 per cent.

On Thursday, the Anglo-Australian miner said its debt had been reduced to $4.3-billion at the end of last year, compared with $18.9-billion at the end of 2009. It also reported record earnings of $14-billion, as well as a $5-billion share buyback and a more than doubling of its annual dividend.

Amid criticism the buyback was too stingy, Mr. Albanese responded saying the company needs a conservative balance sheet to protect against “elevated” risks of a commodities correction when stimulus spending dries up.