Mining giant Rio Tinto said it was focused on a massive ramp-up of its Australian iron ore operations Sunday, following the "disappointing" collapse of a lucrative tie-up with rival BHP Billiton Rio chief Tom Albanese said both companies had done "everything we could" to get the regulatory approval necessary to merge their iron ore projects in the mineral-rich Pilbara region - a deal they ultimately abandoned on Monday.
"Once we heard from the regulators we both recognised this is just getting too hard so we unfortunately - because I'm disappointed - terminated that agreement this week," Albanese told ABC television. "And we're moving on - we're moving on by expanding our operations in the Pilbara."
Rio announced a 3.1 billion US dollar ramp-up of its Pilbara projects Wednesday, targeting production capacity of 283 million tonnes a year in 2013 and 333 million tonnes by 2015 from 220 million tonnes currently. "I think the single best thing that we could be doing for Rio Tinto shareholders is to get as many tonnes developed in the Pilbara (as possible) and that's exactly what we're doing," Albanese said.
Rio was on track to expand its Pilbara business by more than 50 percent in the next five years, he added, a "massive change, massive project." The iron ore joint venture, estimated to deliver 10 billion US dollars in savings, was the second failed deal with BHP, which made a hostile 147 billion-US-dollar play for Rio that lapsed in 2008 due to the financial crisis.