Rio Tinto

The firm Rio Tinto and its name come from southern Spain, where the Río Tinto (Spanish 'Red River') was the site of an ancient mine.

The group produces a number of mineral commodities in its various divisions:

Iron ore
Rio Tinto wholly owns Hamersley Iron, which owns and operates a number of mines in Western Australia either wholly or jointly with several partners. Its partners on some projects notably include several Chinese corporations.
Rio Tinto also owns 53% of Robe River Iron Associates and 59% of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. Iron made up 18% of revenue in 2003 and was responsible for 36% of the group's profit. It is the world's second-largest producer of iron ore. Future iron ore mines are being developed at Simandou in Guinea.

Copper
The copper division not only produces copper itself, but also a considerable quantity of gold from its mines in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Chile, and the United States, some as part of joint ventures. The group owns Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation. The copper group was responsible for 23% of turnover (of which 55% was copper and most of the remainder gold) and 32% of profits in 2003.

Energy
The company's energy group includes coal mining operations in Australia (Rio Tinto Coal Australia) and North America. It is the largest coal mining company in the world

and Energy Resources of Australia, which operates the Ranger Uranium Mine near Kakadu National Park in Australia. The energy group also operates the Rossing uranium mine in Namibia. This group contributed 20% of turnover and 11% of profit.

Industrial minerals
The Industrial minerals group extracts talc, titanium dioxide, salt, borax, amongst several others. These operations are scattered across Australia, the United States, and Africa. This group contributed 15% of turnover and 11% of earnings.

Bauxite
Rio Tinto owns Comalco, which mines bauxite (aluminium ore) in Weipa, Queensland, operates alumina refineries in Gladstone, Queensland. It also operates two aluminium smelters in Australia at Bell Bay (Tasmania) and Boyne Island (Queensland, 59% interest), and one in New Zealand at Tiwai Point (79% interest). The group also operates the Anglesey Aluminium smelter at Holyhead in the United Kingdom. This group contributed 16% of turnover and 14% of adjusted earnings. Rio Tinto now also owns Alcan; the Canadian based, hydro-powered aluminium operation.

Diamonds
The company's diamond operations are best known for the pink diamonds produced at the Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia, which produces over 90% of the world's supply of these gems and around 30% of the world's annual production of all natural diamonds. The company also owns 60% of and manages the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada's Northwest Territories, and the Murowa diamond mine in Zimbabwe.
Rio Tinto lodged mining lease applications for its Bunder diamond project in India in a move it called a vital step in the development of what could be the first significant world class diamond mine in the country.

Rio Tinto also produces bauxite, gold, titanium, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel and uranium.

read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_Group