Rio Tinto said this morning the deal with Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), which would have lifted the China state-owned enterprise’s stake in the company to 18 per cent and given it small stakes in various key mining project, was no longer viable.

However, the world’s the third largest mining company said it hoped to work with Chinalco in the future and recognised the importance of building strong relationships in China, a major consumer of resources commodities.