Sale of Rio Tinto plc Rights Issue Rump Placement

Friday, Jul 03, 2009

Rio Tinto plc announced previously that it had received valid acceptances in respect of 508,577,688 New Rio Tinto plc Shares, representing approximately 96.97% of the total number of New Rio Tinto plc Shares offered to Shareholders pursuant to the fully underwritten rights issue announced by Rio Tinto plc on 5 June 2009.
 
Rio Tinto plc confirms that Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan Cazenove have procured purchasers for the remaining 15,882,790 New Rio Tinto plc Shares for which valid acceptances were not received at a price of 2,100 pence per New Rio Tinto plc Share.
 
The net proceeds, after deduction of the Issue Price of 1,400 pence per New Rio Tinto plc Share and the expenses of procuring purchasers (including any applicable brokerage fees and commissions and amounts in respect of value added tax), will, save for amounts of less than 500 pence, be paid to those persons whose rights have lapsed in accordance with the terms of the rights issue, pro rata to their lapsed provisional allotments.  Amounts of less than 500 pence will be paid to Rio Tinto plc.

It is expected that the results of the Rio Tinto Limited Rights Issue Rump Placement (which has not yet commenced) will be announced on 3 July 2009.

If you have further questions, please telephone the Rio Tinto plc Shareholder Helpline or the Rio Tinto Limited Shareholder Helpline on the numbers set out below. The helplines are available from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. (London time and Melbourne time, respectively) Monday to Friday (except bank and other public holidays) and are expected to remain open until 22 July 2009 and 24 July 2009, respectively.

Rio Tinto plc Shareholder Helpline

0800 435 021 (from inside the UK)
+44 (0) 870 703 6364 (from outside the UK) 

Rio Tinto Limited Shareholder Helpline
1800 813 292 (from inside Australia)
+61 3 9415 4030 (from outside Australia)

Please note that, for legal reasons, the Rio Tinto plc Shareholder Helpline and the Rio Tinto Limited Shareholder Helpline are only able to provide information contained in the Prospectus and information relating to Rio Tinto plc’s and Rio Tinto Limited’s registers of members and are unable to give advice on the merits of the Rights Issues, or provide legal, financial, tax or investment advice.

About Rio

TintoRio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

Source: Rio Tinto