Rio Tinto completes Jacobs Ranch sale

Rio Tinto Ltd has completed the $US764 million ($A864.64 million) sale of its Jacobs
Ranch coal mine to Arch Coal Inc.
The sale of the mine in the US state of Wyoming was announced in March and cleared
by American authorities last month.
Originally the price of the sale was expected to be $US761 million ($A861.25
million), but it increased by $US3 million ($A3.4 million) due to adjustments in the
working capital balance, Rio Tinto said in a statement to the stock exchange
Thursday.
Since February 2008 Rio Tinto has announced asset sales of $US7 billion ($A7.92
billion), in an attempt to pay down some of the company's debt.
Rio Tinto became mired in debt after purchasing Canadian Alcan for $US38 billion
near the height of the commodity boom in October 2007.
Following asset sales and a substantial capital raising, it is thought Rio's debt is
now about $US24.3 billion.
Rio Tinto recently announced it has offloaded its Alcan Composites business to a
Swiss company for $US349 million ($A404.43 million) and 56 per cent of its Alcan
Engineered Production Cable business to Platinum Equity for an undisclosed amount.
Shares in Rio Tinto finished down 34 cents, or 0.57 per cent, at $58.90 on Thursday.