The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London, England and Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto River, in Huelva, Spain from the Spanish government. Since then, the company has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions to place itself among the world leaders in the production of many commodities, including aluminum, iron ore, copper, uranium, coal, and diamonds. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, Rio Tinto also has significant operations in refining, particularly for refining bauxite and iron ore. The company has operations on six continents but is mainly concentrated in Australia and Canada, and owns gross assets valued at $81 billion through a complex web of wholly and partly owned subsidiaries.

Rio Tinto Group is a dual-listed company traded on both the London Stock Exchange where it is a component of the FTSE 100 Index and the Australian Securities Exchange where it is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index. As of March, 2009, Rio Tinto is the fourth-largest publicly listed mining company in the world with a market capitalization of approximately $34 billion, and was listed in Fortune magazine's 2008 Global 500 ranking of largest worldwide companies by revenue at number 263. Although the company has a long record of producing profitable operating results and favorable investment returns, the company's 2007 acquisition of Canadian aluminium company Alcan burdened Rio Tinto with substantial debt, requiring it to dispose of assets to raise cash and consider accepting a large investment from the Chinese state-controlled company Chinalco.

Rio Tinto Diamonds, a diamond business unit of the Rio Tinto Group, operates three diamond mines: the Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia (100% ownership), the Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada (60% ownership), and the Murowa Diamond Mine located in Zimbabwe (78% ownership). Together, these three mines produce 20% of the world's annual production of rough diamonds, making Rio Tinto the world's third-largest producer of mined diamonds.

The diamond business unit's most advanced exploration project is the Bunder Project in Madhya Pradesh, India, where Rio Tinto became the first foreign group to be granted a prospecting license there. Rio Tinto Diamonds generated 1% of revenues and earnings for Rio Tinto Group in 2008.

Number of employees worldwide: 52,000

Chief executive officer: Tom Albanese

Website: http://www.riotinto.com

2008 Global Fortune 500 rank: 263

Net Income: $7.4 billion

Total revenue: $29.7 billion