NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. aluminum producers soared on Thursday after the price of the metal rose more than 5 percent to its highest level in four weeks. Traders attributed the rise to a weaker dollar and a second day of decreased aluminum inventories. On [...]

SHANGHAI — The Chinese government’s largest ever investment in a Western company, a proposed $19.5 billion stake in the Australian-British mining giant Rio Tinto Group, collapsed early Friday, dealing a blow both to China’s global corporate ambitions and to its efforts to gain clout in the natural resources market.
The board of Rio Tinto announced [...]

OKYO (MarketWatch) — Mining giant Rio Tinto said Friday that it’s decided to reject a $19.5 billion deal to sell part of itself to China’s Aluminium Corp. and announced the launch of a heavily discounted rights issue to raise about $15.2 billion in gross proceeds.
The deal with Aluminum Corp.(ACH 26.44, +0.24, +0.92%) , also [...]

For U.S. stock market report double-click
1426 ET 04June2009-Aluminum index advances on rise in metal price The Dow Jones Aluminum index rallied on Thursday, after the price
of the metal rose to its highest level in more than three weeks.
Aluminum for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange was [...]

In July 2007 Rio agreed to buy the group for $38.1bn (£23.6bn), almost exactly the same as the amount of debt it is carrying on its balance sheet today.
Shareholders approved the Alcan deal while commodity markets were booming and there seemed no end to the mining gravy train as China sucked up basic materials. [...]