Rio Tinto nears exit from thermal coal with US$2.45b China deal

London

RIO Tinto Group moved closer to an exit from thermal coal after the world's second-biggest miner agreed to sell most of its mines to a company controlled by China's Yanzhou Coal Mining Co for US$2.45 billion.

Shares in both companies rose on Wednesday.

The sale, which includes Rio's biggest Australian coal operation in the Hunter Valley region, leaves the company with only two producing coal mines in the country that was once the cornerstone of its energy business.

"It was kind of getting to the point where thermal was irrelevant, they're an iron ore, copper, aluminium and industrial-minerals business," said Richard Knights, a mining analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd in London. "Now is a fantastic ti…