Rio Tinto posts 50% fall in earnings

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto posted a 50 per cent slump in annual net earnings on Thursday, saying demand for its products deteriorated very rapidly in the final quarter of 2008.

The company said earnings in the 12 months to December were $3.68 billion, down from $7.31 billion in the previous year.

Writedowns totalling 8.4 billion dollars hit the bottom line, and were only partially offset by the $1.5 billion raised in asset sales.

The announcement came as Rio said that China's state-owned aluminium giant Chinalco would invest $19.5 billion in the company, while chief executive Tom Albanese said the emphasis was now on lowering debt.

"Given the current uncertain economic conditions and the unprecedented rate of deterioration in our markets and prices, we are now focusing our efforts on maximising and conserving cash generation and paying down debt," he said.